“Death is the ultimate freedom”, an argument against the death penalty.

Jodie Arias has been found guilty of first degree murder, having stabbed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander more than 30 times, shooting him in the head, and slitting his throat to the point of near decapitation. Now the jury must decide whether she lives or dies. When questioned after the verdict was read, Jodie stated she’d “rather die sooner than later”.

"Longevity runs in my family, and I don't want to spend the rest of my natural life in one place."

Link.

"I believe death is the ultimate freedom and I'd rather have my freedom as soon as I can get it."

I couldn't agree more, which is why I oppose the death penalty.

Make them suffer.

Death is the easy way out. Look at Gary Gilmore, he wanted nothing more than to die for his crimes. It is the easy way out. Anyone who’s ever read Dostoevsky knows that the greatest punisher is one’s own conscience. And for the criminal who has no conscience there is the boredom of four walls, and the cruelty of their fellow prisoners to drag out the long remainder of their worthless existence. The merciful thing to do would be to put them down like the rabid dogs they are. I say show no mercy.

Ariel Castro kept three girls locked in his basement for nearly ten years so he could rape them at leisure. The natural instinct is to call for the monster’s immediate execution, but I disagree. Stick him in general population so he may be passed around amongst the sodomites for the rest of his natural life. Let him experience the torture he practiced for so many years, and may he live a long, long time. Death would be a blessing, one that should not be granted.

Ask yourself, if you were guilty of a heinous crime, would you rather spend the rest of your life behind bars, or just have the man punch your ticket to the afterlife? Me? I say give me country fried steak and eggs and I’ll see you in hell.

No way.

The death penalty isn’t a deterrent, it’s a reward to the nihilistic criminal with nothing to lose. I say abolish the death penalty, and make criminals truly pay for their crimes.

reply to post by DirtyD


While I would agree in some ways, you should realise that not all people are sane, and some psychats never feel pain. They just don't feel any remorse, and will happily go on living in a cell, being provided everything from your taxes.

I would say the only real places to use the death penalty are murderers who torture their victims. And anyone able to do that obviously doesn't feel emotion. Therefore you wouldn't really get any enjoyment from them being locked up. May as well get rid of them (assuming that the case is clear, and the criminal admits to its acts, and feels no remorse).

reply to post by salainen


Too many if's. And those who torture outside of prison, becomes the tortured inside. Let the scum mete out their own justice.

The problem is that the death penalty has become too nice in the US and probably many other western countries.
Lethal injection and gas chambers are too peaceful. I've heard stories that some are not so peaceful but overall there is the perception that it is just like going to sleep and not waking up.

Bring back beheadings, crucifixion, drawn and quartering, being staked out on fire ant hills. Stuff like that to bring the fear back to it.

It will save loads in tax payer money too.

I don't think Jodi really wants to die. She's probably trying to use reverse psychology.

Anyway, too many innocent people have been on death row or actually executed then proven innocent for me to be pro-death penalty.

I also don't like the idea of the state murdering people.

Originally posted by DirtyD
Too many if's. And those who torture outside of prison, becomes the tortured inside. Let the scum mete out their own justice.

There was not even one if in my post

Not sure what I think of the death penalty. Generally I do not support it, and Australia does not have the death penalty, and I don't want it to be introduced. But in my opinion in some cases it might be easier to give them death, after what they have done. There is no use having them in prison, and I doubt anyone really gets any enjoyment out of seeing them imprisoned over rather than buried.

reply to post by watchitburn


Yeah... because that's so very civilized.

It's also against the US constitution, you should try reading it sometime.

Originally posted by watchitburn
The problem is that the death penalty has become too nice in the US and probably many other western countries.
Lethal injection and gas chambers are too peaceful. I've heard stories that some are not so peaceful but overall there is the perception that it is just like going to sleep and not waking up.

Bring back beheadings, crucifixion, drawn and quartering, being staked out on fire ant hills. Stuff like that to bring the fear back to it.

It will save loads in tax payer money too.

Fear is good in a way. Unfortunately back in the days of behedings, crucifixion, etc. they didn't really have a fair justice system, and many were burnt at a stake, or hanged, over crimes they didn't commit.

I doubt lethal injection or gas chamber is all that peaceful anyway. And while I understand that justice is good, do you really feel any more happier when the criminal gets behedded, over being lethally injected? What good does it do to give the criminal more pain?

reply to post by WaterBottle


Hasn't stopped the Govt. before.

Why get squeamish now?

reply to post by salainen

I doubt lethal injection or gas chamber is all that peaceful anyway

It isn't.

On the books: In Arizona, California, Maryland and Missouri, where inmates can choose it over lethal injection. Wyoming reserves the right to use the gas chamber if lethal injection is found unconstitutional.

How well it works: In a gas execution, the inmate is strapped into an airtight chamber and fitted with a heart monitor. Next, potassium cyanide pellets are dropped into a bucket of sulfuric acid. The resulting chemical reaction creates clouds of deadly hydrogen cyanide gas, which kill the prisoner.

Like electrocution, the gas chamber hasn't always seemed as humane as hoped when it was developed in 1921. Lethal gas takes time to kill; witnesses to the 1960 execution of convicted robber, kidnapper and rapist Caryl Chessman reported almost nine minutes of gasping and coughing, according to the Los Angeles Times. And in one incident in 1983, convicted murderer and rapist Jimmy Lee Gray gasped and flailed so much during his execution that the warden expelled the witnesses from the observation room.

www.livescience.com...

reply to post by WaterBottle


Well thats unfortunate. I always excpected them to be knocking the "patient" out first using some chemicals that put you to sleep, and then administer a different chemical to kill. Although even in that case they would probably have coughing etc. but I thought it would at least prevent pain.

reply to post by watchitburn

Hasn't stopped the Govt. before.

I don't understand your point? Is that supposed to validate the behavior?

Why get squeamish now?

Ah, so you're playing the manly man card. Predictable.

Bring back beheadings, crucifixion, drawn and quartering, being staked out on fire ant hills. Stuff like that to bring the fear back to it.

Anyone that could torture and murder another person for a crime is no better than the convicted murderer. Unless the psychopathic executioner is going to be convicted of murder then the whole situation is hypocritical.

Not to mention all the innocent people who have been executed...

I'm not trying to sound cold but we put down dangerous animals that have attacked humans because having done it once ,they can do it again.They can kill again IN jail,what have they got to lose?My take is a pine box is a lot cheaper to the taxpayers rather than the cost of sustaining their damnable natural life spans.Show them on TV so at least some of these animals may see what waits for them.And like other posters suggest bring back the electric chair as going to sleep forever isn't that terrible an end considering what they did to someone to end up on death row in the first place.Take a life lose yours.

reply to post by DirtyD


I agree. So easy it is to shut the lights off. The best part is when you give them mandatory hearings to appeal the death sentence. It should be one of those things, "under no circumstances is someone going to change it, but lets give em the idea there is still hope, that they might be able to get out one day... Have it an unspoken rule. Not acknowledged and only in the rarest of cases might it actually go through.

Hell, in cases like this, feed them beens from a can, cold...3 times a day. Do that for 1 year. Next year, feed them eggs.

Why make it so easy for the ones who have committed something so heinous the jury (public) would sentence them to death. To take their life!

That is asking a lot from normal day Joe and Jane Blow.

In any case, making them rot in an uncomfortable cell for that whole waiting time seems appropriate.

Originally posted by DirtyD
I couldn't agree more, which is why I oppose the death penalty.

Make them suffer.

Resorting to the torture of a living being doesn't make a society 'better' from my view. It's meant to be a corrections system, not a revenge system.

Really the death penalty should be about protecting and preserving society, and should be enacted when no correction is possible / the person is too horrible to rejoin society, and research is not an option or goal. The moment you wrench the hand brake and make it about torture and revenge we're stepping down to their level and saying that it's okay to take the position of a vengeful punishing God.

Unless you one hundred percent know the value, experience and choices of a person (you are a God) then the punishment you're giving out will only be human and the results will be human (and likely damaging / bad for society).

reply to post by WaterBottle


Check it out.

What incentive is there for criminals to not be criminals?
Not much.

They go to prison, get free education, three meals a bed, free cable TV. All in the name of rehabilitation and being treated justly.

The point of prison is punishment not rehabilitation. Likewise capitol punishment should be the worst thing they can imagine.

This would give them incentive to not be criminals. It has nothing to do with being manly, it's about justice.

Where is the justice for all the victims and their families when all this scum gets to sit in a nice comfy prison getting fat off taxpayer money?

And many of the ones who do get "rehabilitated" after serving their debt to society are worse criminals than when they went in.

So go ahead and step down off your self righteous horse and spare me your condescension.

Originally posted by watchitburn
reply to post by WaterBottle

 

They go to prison, get free education, three meals a bed, free cable TV. All in the name of rehabilitation and being treated justly.

Then who hires them when they get out?

The point of prison is punishment not rehabilitation.

Mistreating someone and then releasing them doesn't actually lower crime rates.

Where is the justice for all the victims and their families when all this scum gets to sit in a nice comfy prison getting fat off taxpayer money?

The prison system in America actually makes a profit.

There are people who believe (with good reason) that this is the reason America has the highest prison population on the planet.

And many of the ones who do get "rehabilitated" after serving their debt to society are worse criminals than when they went in.

True that happens sometimes.

So go ahead and step down off your self righteous horse and spare me your condescension.

Not condescending, it's just what I believe. (I realize this was to water bottle but I suppose you *might* feel the same about me )

By all means give me the information that proves me wrong, and I'll change my mind.

Originally posted by WaterBottle
I don't think Jodi really wants to die. She's probably trying to use reverse psychology.

Anyway, too many innocent people have been on death row or actually executed then proven innocent for me to be pro-death penalty.

I also don't like the idea of the state murdering people.

edit on 9-5-2013 by WaterBottle because: (no reason given)

You may be right about her using reverse psychology. I'm sure there are book deals and TV movies waiting in the wings, and she probably imagines herself as some sort of celebrity. But how long will that last? A few years at most, and then the world will forget about her and she'll still be in prison for a long, long time, probably wishing that they had just gone ahead and executed her. And when all the smoke clears she'll be faced with her own demons, whom she will have to live with alone in her tiny cell. That, to me, is a fate much worse than death.

I also agree that the state has far too often execruted innocent people, and I don't like the the government having the power of life and death. The death penalty is archaic and barbarous.

Resorting to the torture of a living being doesn't make a society 'better' from my view. It's meant to be a corrections system, not a revenge system.

reply to post by Pinke


When someone is being sentenced to life in prison, it is pretty much understood that they are beyond rehabilitation. Imprisonment isn't about torture or revenge, it is about punishment, and to me the greatest punishment would be living out the rest of my life in a cage, constantly fearing for my safety from the other inmates.

The prison system in America actually makes a profit. There are people who believe (with good reason) that this is the reason America has the highest prison population on the planet.

reply to post by Pinke


Yep, there was a judge who was just sentenced to 28 years for "selling" prisoners, basically being paid off to mete out long, unjust sentences for the profit or a private prison. Worst of all the prisoners he was selling were minors. He ruined kids lives for his own gain. I wonder how that will go over with his new neighbors.

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-judge-receives-28year-jail-term-for-his-role-in--kidsforcash-kickbacks-8598147.html]Link.[/ur l]