US death penalty news

pfim · June 7, 2013

Brennan said:
Plenty of relatives of victims have said so, there's organisations set up specifically to highlight the fact that killing a killer doesn't bring peace in many cases.

Well, that doesn't really make things worse, perhaps irrelevant.

I fully believe that some people deserve to die for their crimes. This guy, I don't know, the mental and social stress he was under perhaps caused this outburst. Then again, he was drunk and on drugs the night he did it, a choice he made. I guess that is the crux of the argument: 1. proving the crime beyond a shadow of a doubt, and taking circumstances into consideration and who gets to decide the criteria.

I fully understand this is a nothing answer as I haven't really formed a complete opinion on the matter.

Bigloco · June 7, 2013

Steve0 said:
I think we both know that if he was a black soldier who killed a white family in Texas then he'd be sentenced to death.

In years past, no argument...but today? I don't think so, circumstances being the same. I don't know a lot about the case, but hypothetically assuming the black soldier had no priors, married with 2 kids like the original story...I'd say no. They guy's 4 tours says a heck of a lot and patriotism is pretty powerful in this country and especially texas.

I could be dead wrong though. The racial divide in the US isn't what it used to be, imo.

Julian Carax · June 7, 2013

I don´t think we need to make excuses for guy who has killed 8 children.

pfim · June 7, 2013

Steve0 said:
I think we both know that if he was a black soldier who killed a white family in Texas then he'd be sentenced to death.

Ridiculous assertion.

bignev23 · June 7, 2013

pfim said:
He should serve his sentence in an Afghan prison.

So he should.
If you murder somebody for murdering somebody how are you any better than them. A life is a life and it should be illegal for both the public and the state to commit murder.

canuckblue · June 7, 2013

Steve0 said:
I think you don't fully comprehend how bad prison is as a punishment.

30 years without seeing the ocean, without seeing another country, without having a bath, without having a shower when you want, without having another take away, without celebrating another birthday, without sex with a woman, without being able to log on to GOT etc etc.

Prison isn't easy. It's why suicide rates are so high.

Sounds like the Australian outback....