(submission) (abuse) America's Death Chambers Ready For 1000th Victim

By next week the 1000th person will be put to death by the American government since the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1976. After the 10 year hiatus on killing was over, Gary Gilmore stood before a firing squad in Utah, ready to meet his fate. And with his final words of "Let's do it", he was shot dead for his crimes.
From that day in 1977, almost 1000 people have been put to death for the benefit of American society.



I live in a country without a death penalty, and I find it very disturbing that the Americans choose to do away with who they deem to be a threat to their society. I don't see the death penalty as a way to deter crime, because that's not what's on the persons mind when they are comitting a rape or murder etc...
Their focus is on the need that they feel at the time. Their need to get something that their mind won't let go of.
If the need is sex, drugs, money or retribution, and the motivation or desire is strong enough in the perpetrator, then someone is victimized. It's a sad reality......
But putting someone to death for that crime will not stop the next person from doing the same. People just don't think that way.

I think it's time to stop the killing......

Related News Links:
www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
www.amnestyusa.org

Try reading just how manny killers and rapest and kidnapers take there own lifes when the police are closing in .
This should tell you something .
(Most perfer Death to life incarasation.
ill tell you if I was up for life Id take the easy way out my self.

I don't personally support the death penalty, but we also seem to have a problem in this country letting lifers out on the street. There are too many examples of cases where groups have taken up the "cause" of releasing brutal killers who have suppossedly "changed" and are no longer a danger to society. This is frequently attributed to the incarcerated person having "found God" and changed their ways. We hear something along the lines of God has forgiven, so should we.

I don't buy this at all. Forgiveness is not a a free ticket as far as I'm concerned. It is separate from punishment. If you truly found God, you should understand that you have a debt to pay for the crime whether or not you are forgiven.

We need to get beyond the death penalty, but we also need to make sure if it were a crime worthy of it, the person has made their choices and now must live with that whether they are ever rehabilitated or not.

"Garry Gilmours Eyes"

I´m lying in a hosptal I´m pinned against the bed
A stethoscope upon my heart a hand against my head
They´re peeling off the bandages I´m wincing in the light
The nurse is looking anxious and she´s quivering in fright

I´m looking through Gary Gilmore´s eyes

I don't really see the point of the death sentence either. Murders are crimes of passion and no amount of punishment will detere crimes of this nature.
And how hypocrytical when the state itself murders thousands through wars, testing of drugs without concent etc...The list goes on...

Their focus is on the need that they feel at the time. Their need to get something that their mind won't let go of.

I would have to differentiate here, between a nervous teenager holding up a liquor store with a hair-trigger gun, and a John Evander Couey. IMO, the teenager is a candidate for rehabilitation; Couey is not.

Couey is an example of successfully using capital punishment as a deterrent. As long as he is alive, children are not safe. The one killer we can be sure to deter by executing Couey is Couey. That is more certainty than we have with any prisoner serving a life sentence.

The number of recent prison escapes is troubling, also. We cannot say that if a killer is sentenced to life w/o parole, he is out of society's way. Not true - escape is always possible, and so is pardon.


[edit on 25-11-2005 by jsobecky]

[edit on 25-11-2005 by jsobecky]

from ANOKI don't really see the point of the death sentence either. Murders are crimes of passion and no amount of punishment will detere crimes of this nature.

How does a life sentence act as a better deterrent than capital punishment? If we talk about sociopaths, then nothing is a deterrent.

Someone here once suggested televising an execution on PPV. They thought it would be a good deterrent for potential murderers.

IMO, the real sickos would be the first to sign up for the PPV. Then they'd make sure their Tivo was working.

I don't know why this is an issue, at all. Just as in the case of the 2,000th death in Iraq, it's an arbitrary figure used to push an agenda. Who cares if the death penalty is a deterrent or not. Death is a fitting punishment for certain crimes.

You are absolutely right - there is nothing magical about the number 2000.

The noise and press that was generated over the 2000th death in Iraq was designed to take attention away from Iraq's successful referendum vote on the new constitution.

The good news, the progress, was overshadowed by negative press once again.

If 1000 means nothing and 2000 means nothing, then what number does mean something? 10,000? When 10,000 people are killed, will that be worthy of mentioning?

It's not the number that matters, it's a wake-up call. You know, Hey! We're killing real people here! Some are innocent.

I think the death penalty is barbaric and an easy answer to a tough problem. The justice system in the USA is so messed up I don't even kow where to start. Yes I do. We need to stop killing people.

It is unfortunate that some of those sentenced to death are innocent.

It is unfortunate that some of those sentenced to life without parole are innocent.

It is unfortunate that some of those riding their bikes home from work are shot in the back of the head by two bored thugs with a shotgun, are innocent (this happened last week here in Kansas City, our 114th murder this year).

Our judicial system isn't perfect. None are. But the end justifies the means.

Very few crimes qualify for the death penalty. Noone has been executed for anything but murder since 1964, and even then it was a brutal rape. Typically, for a murder to be a capital offense, it must be very violent and often in the process of comitting another criminal act. Killing cops will get you hung, too. But, nearly every death row inmate is sentenced by a jury. A group of rational people who unanimously agree the crime was severe enough to warrant termination of the perpetrator.

Noone said it's perfect. Nothing ever will be. But if your loved one had their throat cut to make it easier to steal a little bit of money from them, or if your child was viciously raped and then had their head crushed, or if someone tried to steal your car, and in the process ran you over and killed you... don't you think the death penalty just might be justified?

I do.

November 25, 2005

163 EXONERATED


www.innocenceproject.org...

Maybe you should read that page a bit more closely.

163 people sentenced to death were not exonerated.

163 people is how many people convicted of ANYTHING that have been exonerated by this group.

But if your loved one had their throat cut to make it easier to steal a little bit of money from them, or if your child was viciously raped and then had their head crushed, or if someone tried to steal your car, and in the process ran you over and killed you... don't you think the death penalty just might be justified?

No. To me it's not a matter of how bad the crime was. (and I think your hypothetical situations point out that it's vengeance you're after, not justice) To me, it's a matter of my belief that I don't have the right to take another person's life. I don't think we have that right, except in self defense. It's just what I believe.

I'm sorry, the death penalty isn't a good thing to do, it teaches nothing except killers & rapist should be killed. It doesn't teach why they did what they did, & why we shouldn't repeat their mistakes.

I believe, & it has been proven time & again, that most of the people who have raped, molested, or gone on to do some other deviant misdeed to society, have serious problems, both mentally & spiritual.

The "sex crimes" as they are labeled, truly have nothing to do with sex at all. It's all about control, & taking control back for that person. Sex is only the way it is used to personify what happened to that person, it's an easy way to take control from someone. More often than not, a rapist was sexually abused in his or her childhood, & didn't get mental help, or tried, but no one was listening. I'm not saying that's an excuse, but it is a serious part of the problem.

Someone took control from the individual that became a rapist or murderer, & then they turned around & perpetrated the same crime on someone else. Again, this isn't to excuse that individual, but it is said to enlighten people.

You can't just kill someone who did something like that, first you need to understand why they did what they did, & try to unravel their mind, & to help them sort it all out & put it back together the right way.

Unfortuanately, most do not want to do this, they do not want to change, they don't want to talk about it. Why not, you ask? Because most people are so in denial of it mentally, that it even happened in the first place, that they can't talk about it. They are damaged mentally, & don't know how to talk about it, neither do they know why they did what they did most times.

There are some people, who do know why they did it, they had other negative influences added to these things, like a physically abusive parents, or a mentally abusive mate.

Did you know, that Adolf Hitler's father regularly beat on him, & his mother molested him? Did you know that his father was Jewish & that's why he focused on the Jews? Because of his mother molesting him, he didn't know how to trust women, & that's why it took til the day he commited suicide, til he married Eva Braun?

Now, I ask you, does any other man in this World, deserve the death penalty more than Adolf Hitler? I'm sure there are some, & I'm also sure there are some lesser than him that deserve it. But if someone could've gotten to him before he got powerful, before he started slaughtering Jews, & explained that it wasn't his fault, that some people are just plain evil, like his parents, maybe he could've turned around, & not started doing those attrocious actions on the World. If they could've just gotten him to talk about it, maybe he wouldn't have had millions of people cruelly abused & killed.

The electric chair solves nothing, the lethal injection solves nothing, hanging does nothing, but to make an example of that person, in a cruel & gruesome way & shows people that we won't accept what's different.

It's not that somethings different that we should be looking at, it's what wrong with it, & how can we learn from it. Can we learn not to follow his or her example? Can we learn what not to let people do? Can we learn not to become a montser ourselves?

Yes, but it takes time to turn the mass public around & stop following the ignorant off a cliff like a stupid lemming.

Why all the references to rape? I thought the death penalty was reserved for at least first degree murder in all state and federal cases (in some states even further special circumstances such as multiple murders are needed).

Correct me if I'm wrong.

It may not necessarily be the right of any single person to put to death someone who has killed another, but it is the right of the courts of a nation to carry out such a sentence.

You could interpret this as self defense... A state defending itself against further violence from a citizen of that state. A citizen whom the state has determined that nothing good can come from the continued existence of said citizen. If 16 rational people of the state legally decide that such a convict deserves to die, the opinion of a single person doesn't really matter in the big picture. The state in which they reside has spoken. If they don't like it, they can either try and convince others not to either, or they can find another state.

>dj: Rape used to be a sole qualification for the death penalty. This ended in the 60s. Today, many death row inmates are guilty of murdering their rape victims.

[edit on 25-11-2005 by apc]

BenevolentHeretic

I'd wager that I could throw enough "what ifs" at you that you would eventually concede that capital punishment is appropriate in certain cases. But that isn't the point. You seem to question the motive of the executioner, because you mentioned vengeance as opposed to justice. Well I believe that vengeance has it's place, also. If a pit-bull mauled my child I would not rest until that dog was dead. A good case could be made for the dog, too. But the emotion I would be feeling would be paternal protection instinct, which is second in intensity only to maternal protection instinct.

I say this because I wonder about questioning someone's motive for retaliation. If we have that right and duty, then we have the right and duty to select the punishment.

I see the death penalty in our country like this . . . Only for those unlucky ones than can not pay good high class lawyers to get away from a death sentence or life in prison.

Or . . . unlucky enough for those to be caught in a state that supports it.

Yes, some are unlucky enough to die . . . while others . . . goes free.

It's that fair for everybody that commit murder in our country? or for the victims?

How about the ones that goes unpunished. Yes . . . they are the lucky ones.

Hmmmm wierd I replied to a different thread, how'd it end up in this one? Sorry...

[edit on 25/11/2005 by ANOK]

Indeed, sometimes capital punishment is about vengence. Vengence for crimes perpetrated against the innocent, who could not defend themselves.
Capital punishment should be used very carefully. It is the only punishment that fits certain crimes, amongst them would be child molestation, murder of anyone in the committion of a crime, drug dealing to children, etc...
The death penalty can also be about closure of sorts for victims families as well.