Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment

Looks like this question could come into the spotlight more now that Teresa Lewis is going to be executed in Virginia.  Will be all the more controversial considering she's a woman and the issues involved in the case.  So I'm curious to know what you people think about Capital Punishment.  If it should ever be allowed and if so, in what cases?

Interesting article from the BBC about it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11386347

I think the execution is scheduled to go ahead today our time.

Voted yes, for extreme cases. Got to be full confession or 100% evidence & a total evil ba**ard. So that probably means there would always be a case for not executing>  (Whooooo & Buffy would survive my criteria).

Seems to be a strange thing to be discussing at 4.30am! Must be the excitement of Fever Friday.

One of those nights where you just can't sleep (and you have to get up at 8.35am).

The way I see it there's surely no reason to execute considering study after study has shown that capital punishment doesn't deter people (don't ask for sources, I've read it in numerous reputable places though, I may dig something up tomorrow) and the costs in a capital case exceed the costs of housing an inmate for life.  It also bothers me that, in the US at least, the poor and minorities tend to be at far greater risk of falling foul of the death penalty than others.  And the mere fact that the authorities could be wrong makes me uneasy and while I'm sure it happens very rarely there's no denying that it happens.

USA is the only western country still practicing capital punishment isn't it?

I think my Fever Friday will be hampered significantly due to my tiredness - a healthy 3 points should wake me up good and proper, though.
loyalgunner2010-09-24 04:47:01

When I qualified my yes vote with the "evil bas**rd" tag, I was leaning towards the likes of Hitler, Pol Pot, Ceaucescu, Idi Amin, O J Simpson, Saddam Hussein, etc.

Mostly.



Blue = abolished for all crimes
Green = only legal in extreme circumstances such as war crimes
Orange = still officially legal but not in use
Red = in use

Completely against it ever being used.

I voted for "yes, in extreme cases" mainly because there wasn't a "yeah go on, why not?"

I voted "yes". However, I doubt that the death sentence is a deterrence to a person who's about to commit murder due to his/her state of mind at the time.

Didn't work in the Middle Ages or 1800s in the US or today. Like above ^, people will are f**ked up enough tto kill won't be deterred by anything.

No one would ever confess if that was the case.

This.

voted yes simply cos its a way of controlling the already exploding prison population.....

Agreed.  And since when has the death penalty been a worse punishment than life imprisonment?  People act like it's the greater punishment of the two.  The week leading up to it would be unimaginable, but you'd think four decades behind bars would be worse?  Yet that doesn't seem to placate those wanting blood.
loyalgunner2010-09-24 12:10:03

 

Death penalty is about revenge. Revenge is not a good law system.

US woman Teresa Lewis executed for family murders

A 41-year-old woman who conspired to murder her husband and stepson has been executed in the US state of Virginia.

Teresa Lewis was the first woman to be put to death in the US for five years and in Virginia since 1912.

Lewis, who had learning difficulties, used sex and cash to persuade hitmen to kill her family in 2002.

The US Supreme Court and Virginia's governor refused to stop her execution, which took place at 2100 (0100 GMT) at Greensville Correctional Center.

Last meal

Lewis spent her last hours with her spiritual adviser and family members at the prison in the city of Jarratt.

She requested a final meal of two breasts of fried chicken, sweet peas with butter, a slice of either German cake or apple pie, and a Dr Pepper soft drink, prison spokesman Larry Traylor said.

On 30 October 2002, Lewis left the door to her family home unlocked for gunmen Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller.

Lewis's husband, Julian Lewis, 51, and stepson, Charles Lewis, 25, were later found dead from shotgun blasts in the Virginia city of Danville.

Lawyers for Lewis filed a petition for clemency on 25 August 2010, but the US Supreme Court refused to intervene. Two of three women in the nine-judge court voted to halt the execution.

Lewis, who has an IQ of 72, claimed that she did not possess the intelligence to have planned the killings, and that new defence evidence allegedly proved one of the gunmen manipulated her.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said medical and psychological reports provided no compelling reason to grant clemency to Lewis, noting she had admitted her role in the killings.

"After numerous evaluations, no medical professional has concluded that Teresa Lewis meets the medical or statutory definition of mentally retarded," Mr McDonnell said after he rejected the clemency plea.

Lewis was motivated to hire the gunmen by the desire to inherit her husband's assets and her stepson's life insurance. She paid for the weapons and ammunition used in the murders.

Shallenberger and Fuller were both sentenced to life in prison. Shallenberger committed suicide in 2006.

Virginia carries out the second highest number of executions of any state in the US.

Bloody hell.

Paulinho2010-09-24 13:32:17

Plenty of other ways to control the prision population.  Furthermore, there are f**k all murders in NZ's prisions.

how come she planned the killings and gets the death penalty and the 2 who commited the killings got life imprisonment? thought it would be the other way round.

very touchy subject indeed

Show me a case where a murderer (not manslaughter) got released after 6 years.

She was said to be the mastermind behind it and the whole reason it happened and I think that's why she was executed.  Though it appears that the men were targeting someone who had a family member who had a large life insurance policy and as such they befriended her, killed the husband and stepson, and collected a large amount of the money through her.  They manipulated her by the looks of things.  Made all the worse by the fact that her I.Q. is 72.  I may be wrong here, but isn't someone deemed legally retarded if they're below 70?

And 2ndbest, I agree with you but don't some murderers get out after a few years through bargaining.  For example, giving vital information to prosecutors which leads to the arrests of a number of others.  That type of thing.

Capital punishment would sure be a good deterrent to divers.

For murder? No.

I'm against it. 

Only 8 years on death row. Thats not long. I bet David Bain is glad we don't have the death penalty here. He might not have made it to his appeal.

Very true.  Many cases have them on death row for far longer, over two decades sometimes.

I remember there was a murder in Marton(? - somewhere in the NI, maybe Manawatu/Wairarapa) where an elderly woman was strangled to death I think it was and the mayor was calling for the re-institution of capital punishment.  Fortunately nobody listened to him, though it was a terrible crime.

No - But prison shouldn't be a hotel for criminals. They should get the bare minimum. Celebrities shouldn't be allowed out of prison early! even if they are rich. I would rather a rapist be locked away forever eating stale bread and dirty water for the rest of his life.

THIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0w3vKgka_YLuis Garcia2010-09-24 22:52:50

Yeah I am all for this!

No guns though and needs more A-class drugs, quad bikes, ramps, power drills etc.. just anything that can cause total carnage.

I'd watch that. P'd up thugs on motorbikes with flame-throwers going over specially build jumps then finding the rapists on the island and burning them alive! Place some dangerous wild animals amongst them and we have reality TV worth watching.

Timothy Mcveigh Deserved to be executed i voted yes in extreme cases 

Maybe we should put someone in a prison cell and make Andrew Dewhurst commentate their every move for as long as it takes for them to plead forgiveness! 

But Steve-o, that clashes with the 'get tough on crime' rhetoric. Can't be right.

Get tough on Crime has always meant
get tough on other peoples crime

"Rich people should do time too"
no, that is why we have fines. Money brings privilege and the 'Justice' system is in no way immune from that.

killing people is not really justice for mind. Although the desire fro revenge is both plausible and probably appropriate.

historically the death penalty has nothing to do with 'Crime' and everything to do with economic opportunity, political orientation and the lack of legal safeguards ironically enough from the general populace.

The Mad Hatters Tea Party, who stood in the 1972 general election (the McGillicuddy Serious of the day), had the right idea.

Criminals should be locked in cells with Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep on 24 hour rotation.