World Day Against the Death Penalty

Dino283

What a bunch of bullshit.The Bible says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Folks that kill other folks ought to be killed, not live it up all protected and shit in some jail livin' off my tax dollars. It keeps the population under control and keeps the land clean.

Puck78

Dino283 wrote:

What a bunch of bullshit.The Bible says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Folks that kill other folks ought to be killed, not live it up all protected and shit in some jail livin' off my tax dollars. It keeps the population under control and keeps the land clean.

ahahahah, what were we saying about "christian republicans that agree with death penalty?", ahahahah, you're just a fake, isn't it? you can't be true

Ahnimus

Dino283 wrote:

What a bunch of bullshit.The Bible says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Folks that kill other folks ought to be killed, not live it up all protected and shit in some jail livin' off my tax dollars. It keeps the population under control and keeps the land clean.

Isn't that old testament?

Collin

Dino283 wrote:

What a bunch of bullshit.The Bible says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Folks that kill other folks ought to be killed, not live it up all protected and shit in some jail livin' off my tax dollars. It keeps the population under control and keeps the land clean.

Since when is the bible American law?

And also, thou shalt not kill. Guess where I read it?

Puck78

Dino283 wrote:

What a bunch of bullshit.The Bible says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Folks that kill other folks ought to be killed, not live it up all protected and shit in some jail livin' off my tax dollars. It keeps the population under control and keeps the land clean.

that's neither the old testament, that comes from a code from the Babylon empire, called Hammurabi code, that was written before the bible.

sponger

Puck78 wrote:

that's neither the old testament, that comes from a code from the Babylon empire, called Hammurabi code, that was written before the bible.

Werd. I was gonna say that, but I wasn't sure. King David's deal, wasn't it?

Hinny

Dino283 wrote:

What a bunch of bullshit.The Bible says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Folks that kill other folks ought to be killed, not live it up all protected and shit in some jail livin' off my tax dollars. It keeps the population under control and keeps the land clean.

Ie. sorry innocent folk, shame we had to kill you, but see we've got this punishment, and yeah, every now and then it goes wrong. It's kind of necessary for us to kill more innocent you so we might be able to kill the baddies instead.

Your death is honourable!

sponger

I could sit around for hours and talk about how the death penalty is wrong immoral. But, if I was in a situation where a relative of mine was a victim of a capital offense, then I would probably want to see the sob fry. I've wanted to see people fry for a whole lot less - like when this guy looked at me wrong the other day. He doesn't deserve to live, IMO.

given to fly

Dino283 wrote:

What a bunch of bullshit.The Bible says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Folks that kill other folks ought to be killed, not live it up all protected and shit in some jail livin' off my tax dollars. It keeps the population under control and keeps the land clean.

what does the bible have to do with anything?

sponger

given to fly wrote:

what does the bible have to do with anything?

The bible is being brought up because it is practically synonymous with right wing america. And it is right wing america that makes up a majority of death penalty supporters.

Puck78

sponger wrote:

I could sit around for hours and talk about how the death penalty is wrong immoral. But, if I was in a situation where a relative of mine was a victim of a capital offense, then I would probably want to see the sob fry.

that would be revenge, not justice. Justice should be beyond the feeling of revenge

sponger

Puck78 wrote:

that would be revenge, not justice. Justice should be beyond the feeling of revenge

Yes, I know this. As the pope put it, it's "mob justice." Like I said, anyone can intellectualize the moral implications of capital punishment, but who is to say for sure what we personally would want when it came down to it? Just "knowing" something is wrong doesn't make us "believe" that it's wrong. And the human tendency to forget this is one of the main ingredients in the recipe for hypocrisy.

Byrnzie

know1 wrote:

How something that will inevitably happen to all of us - death - can be considered a punishment is inconceivable to me.

I'd be interested to witness how you'd behave in a situation where you were given a time and date as to the day of your execution Know1. I'm sure that as the days, hours, and minutes counted down to the moment that you were to be strapped into the chair for your life to be clinically snuffed out, you wouldn't be so blase in your attitude. Then again, I could be wrong.

Byrnzie

Everyone on this thread should make the effort to seek out and read Albert Camus' essay 'Reflections on the Guillotine'. I'm not aware of any other piece of writing that looks at this subject philosophically, and is so damning of the death penalty. Seriously, read it!

Edit: It's not availble online, or else I'd have supplied a link. Here's an excerpt:

'Could not justice concede to the criminal the same weakness in which society finds a sort of permanent extenuating circumstance for itself? Can the jury decently say: “If I kill you by mistake, you will forgive me when you consider the weaknesses of our common nature. But I am condemning you to death without considering those weaknesses or that nature"? There is a solidarity of ill men in error and aberration. Must that solidarity operate for the tribunal and be denied the accused? No, and if justice has any meaning in this world, it means nothing but the recognition of that solidarity; it cannot, by its very essence, divorce itself from compassion. Compassion, of course, can in this instance be but awareness of a common suffering and not a frivolous indulgence paying no attention to the sufferings and rights of the victim. Compassion does not exclude punishment, but it suspends the final condemnation. Compassion loathes the definitive, irreparable measure that does an injustice to mankind as a whole because of failing to take into account the wretchedness of the common condition.'

http://hnn.us/articles/118.html

Puck78

Byrnzie wrote:

Everyone on this thread should make the effort to seek out and read Albert Camus' essay 'Reflections on the Guillotine'. I'm not aware of any other piece of writing that looks at this subject philosophically, and is so damning of the death penalty. Seriously, read it!

Camus is a wonderful writer, but he's not the only philosopher that considered the problem (phylosophically).
Just to quote famous thinkers: Jacques Derrida did it, Norberto Bobbio...
Long before Camus, Cesare Beccaria did it...
They are all worth readings...

Byrnzie

Puck78 wrote:

Camus is a wonderful writer, but he's not the only philosopher that considered the problem (phylosophically).
Just to quote famous thinkers: Jacques Derrida did it, Norberto Bobbio...
Long before Camus, Cesare Beccaria did it...
They are all worth readings...

O.k. My mistake.

sponger

Byrnzie wrote:

“If I kill you by mistake, you will forgive me when you consider the weaknesses of our common nature. But I am condemning you to death without considering those weaknesses or that nature"?

The writer uses as an example of an extenuating circumstance the common man's tendency to make mistakes. In other words, we the readers are expected to extend to the condemned the same compassion that we extend to ourselves when we take into account our own imperfections.

And as a specific example of a mistake, the writer uses the circumstance a "mistaken" condemnation. I can only infer that this entails the death of an innocent.

In which case, I would say that I would have to disagree with this person's rationale for the elimination of the death penalty. The death penalty is immoral not because of the potential for mistaken identity.

Byrnzie

sponger wrote:

The writer uses as an example of an extenuating circumstance the common man's tendency to make mistakes. In other words, we the readers are expected to extend to the condemned the same compassion that we extend to ourselves when we take into account our own imperfections.

And as a specific example of a mistake, the writer uses the circumstance a "mistaken" condemnation. I can only infer that this entails the death of an innocent.

In which case, I would say that I would have to disagree with this person's rationale for the elimination of the death penalty. The death penalty is immoral not because of the potential for mistaken identity.

This isn't his sole argument. It's just an excerpt. Again, you should read the whole essay.

know1

Byrnzie wrote:

I'd be interested to witness how you'd behave in a situation where you were given a time and date as to the day of your execution Know1. I'm sure that as the days, hours, and minutes counted down to the moment that you were to be strapped into the chair for your life to be clinically snuffed out, you wouldn't be so blase in your attitude. Then again, I could be wrong.

I'm not blase in my attitude. I am against the death penalty in all situations and for many various reasons. In this case, I just tried to focus on the concept that we're all going to die, so how can death be an appropriate punishment. I guess we're all to be punished.

Knowing the time and method of your death can be both a positive and a negative experience depending upon your attitude.

sponger

know1 wrote:

I'm not blase in my attitude. I am against the death penalty in all situations and for many various reasons. In this case, I just tried to focus on the concept that we're all going to die, so how can death be an appropriate punishment. I guess we're all to be punished.

Knowing the time and method of your death can be both a positive and a negative experience depending upon your attitude.

I see what you're saying. You're saying that the death penalty gives death a bad name. Makes sense.