The Death Penalty, Schwarzenegger and The Exonerated

On January 19th of this year Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allowed the
first death sentence to be served in three years, and the first under
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. That is almost copied straight from a
news site (because honestly if I hadn’t, there’s no way I’d have been
able to spell Arnie’s name!)

Anyway, I recently caught an ad for a movie on Court TV called The
Exonerated. It’s based on true stories of several people who spent
years on death row for crimes they didn’t commit. The original version
was a play which inspired my interest in the subject of the death
penalty. I specifically remember one guy who spent something like 20
years on death row before finally being cleared.

Now before someone jumps all over me: I’m not saying that the guy who
was just executed in California was innocent. But does anyone think
it’s acceptable that even one innocent person could be executed? I
think it’s about time this country joins the rest of the civilized
world and adopts a more humane approach. For those of you still on the
fence on this issue, I’d check out this movie, because if it’s anything
like the play the personal stories will astound you. I think it airs on
January 27 (but check courttv.com just in case I’m wrong). And if you
have thoughts on this issue, I’d like to hear them.

Sounds interesting, hopefully someone will upload it as a torrent or somesuch so I can grab it.

Though if you want a serious debate on the subject matter I think The Drawing Tomb would be a better bet as you'll just get needless spam in here.

moved it to the The Drawing Room, welcome tflon hope you will like it here ;)

We have debated this subject many times before.
IMO the death penalty is purely punishment, not a deterrent. I support the death penalty for certain crimes, however I would like to see the system tightened up to make sure mistakes are not made.
We have forensic technology today and it is getting better all the time and nobody should be put to death untill guilt has been proven without a doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt is not good enough.

There also needs to be a continuous standard for passing a death sentence so that it is not "pot luck"

As tflon said....it is not worth one innocent life.... on that I agree

l watched a program from America once that followed a young lawyer who campaigned for people on death row. In this program he was trying to get a stay of execution for a young black guy while he tried to trace a witness who may have been able to prove his innocence. He got an initial stay, but only a couple of weeks later it was on again. They finally executed this guy. A few days later they found the witness and he had evidence that would have cleared him.

"Since 1973, 117 people in 25 states have been released from death row with evidence of their innnocence."

Death Penalty Information Center

would that be "14 days in may" ?

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Originally Posted by vidcc

would that be "14 days in may" ?

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Maybe, my memory isn't that hot.

Oddly enough I agree with Vid on this one. I support the death penalty but I also think that there shouldn’t be a shadow of a doubt before someone is put to death.

For those who disagree with the death penalty what should be done with these people?

For instance there is a serial rapist/murder on trail in my home state who was caught after he had raped and murdered 13 women. He brutally raped these women before killing them and then dumped their bodies in the bayou (small lakes and rivers) and buried some of them. There is DNA evidence proving that he did commit these crimes. Now what should the state do with this monster?

If we say "If you kill someone we are going to kill you.", how do we stop countries from cutting off the hands of thieves, or stoning adulterers to death, and so on? If we don't lead by example, what do we hold up to these countries?

In Britain the "principle" of imprisonment is rehabilitation, not punishment. Killing murderers is not going to make the country any safer than locking them up for the rest of their lives. Personally, l'd rather be executed than spend the rest of my life in solitary confinement.

Perhaps a compromise would be to "allow" them to kill themselves if they want to, issue them with rope belts and hang hooks in their cells, give them razor blades to shave with, that sort of thing.

Quote:

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Perhaps a compromise would be to "allow" them to kill themselves if they want to, issue them with rope belts and hang hooks in their cells, give them razor blades to shave with, that sort of thing.

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wow, how about no?