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Post by glitchwizard on Oct 15, 2008 15:17:40 GMT -5
I was all about the death penalty when I believed it was reserved for those who were predators or were particuarly heinous about their crimes. What changed my mind was reading through a pen pal's court documents. I realized that you can get the death penalty without ever killing anyone, without ever having an intent to kill anyone and... without even having it IN you to kill anyone. That describes... me. Then I saw people who did commit the atrocities I once thought were reserved for death row inmates... but they had life without parole. It didn't make sense. I delved deeper and changed my mind. Oh, I was militant too! I used to wonder why they didn't harvest the organs from death row inmates to donate to people on the organ waiting list. Yeah, I've come a long way.
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Post by biglinmarshall on Oct 15, 2008 19:18:20 GMT -5
Hi there.
Thanks for a great opening post.
Of course the death penalty OUGHT to be reserved for the worst of the worst. Sadly, that is all too often NOT the case.
I still support it for the worst murderers but I am absolutely opposed to the disgusting law of parties which is nothing but an excuse to murder people who have NOT killed ANYONE.
That is totally immoral and while I'd gladly hoist the rope myself (I'm a traditionalist, I favour hanging) for the likes of Richard Ramirez and Christa Pike I was delighted when Kenneth Foster's execution was overruled and both sad and angry when an execution subsequently took place of another inmate under the law of parties.
Hey, moral issues are complex. As someone who lost a dear friend to murder and used to be an anti myself I know that only too well.
It's very easy for fry circus pros who want to execute everyone and the sizzle circus antis who want to give everyone mandatory LWOP.
If you HAVE a conscience you realise that moral judgements are very complex and that in fact the 'one size fits all' approach to justice is stupid, ineffective and downright immoral.
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Post by pumpkinpie on Oct 15, 2008 21:42:24 GMT -5
I was all about the death penalty when I believed it was reserved for those who were predators or were particuarly heinous about their crimes. What changed my mind was reading through a pen pal's court documents. I realized that you can get the death penalty without ever killing anyone, without ever having an intent to kill anyone and... without even having it IN you to kill anyone. That describes... me. Then I saw people who did commit the atrocities I once thought were reserved for death row inmates... but they had life without parole. It didn't make sense. I delved deeper and changed my mind. Oh, I was militant too! I used to wonder why they didn't harvest the organs from death row inmates to donate to people on the organ waiting list. Yeah, I've come a long way. Hi Glitzwizard, welcome! Interesting username! Interesting thoughts too... I never thought of why they don't donate the organs of executed inmates? And your right- the system makes no sense. A sometimes innocent person will get sentenced to death, meanwhile a serial killer gets life.
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