old europe wrote:....
Of course, we could compare the numbers of murders in countries with death penalty to numbers in countries without death penalty...
And we could compare apples to oranges too .... :wink:
yitwail wrote:one more qualification to keep in mind is that not all murders are capital offenses. i'm no expert, but i imagine that second-degree murder and manslaughter wouldn't call for a death sentence without a lot of aggravating factors, so it would surprise me if capital punishment lowered the incidence of all criminal killings, as opposed to the premeditated ones.
Yes that IS a good point because we run into the problem of classification being different in various jurisdictions within one country let alone between countries. We'll end up trying to compare Navel oranges with Granny Smith apples
Thanks Thomas I shall chase that down, it looks promising.
The only murderer that capital punishment clearly deters is the one being executed. Assuming, of course, that they arrested, tried and executed the right man)
The death penalty would be even more effective, as a deterrent, if we executed a few innocent people more often.
Good point, Dys. The death penalty would be much more effective if we killed a lot more people, a lot more often.
A speedy trial does no good when the penalty is carried out 10 years after the crime.
dyslexia wrote:The death penalty would be even more effective, as a deterrent, if we executed a few innocent people more often.
There's a funny line in Woody Allen's Love & Death, something like, "Mankind is sentenced to death for a crime it didn't commit, but I go tomorrow."
I agree that the Death Penalty, if we have to use it, should be carried out in a relatively speedy fashion.
I think there should be plenty of time to bring up DNA evidence; let's say one year or two years, but this practice of making people wait on death row for ten or fifteen years has got to stop.
Then again, in my state we execute the mentally retarded and juvenilles, so there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed with the system...
Cycloptichorn
I think the data clearly shows that Texas is filled with mouth-breathing, sheep-f*cking, knuckle-dragging Australopitheci. And if this data isn't convincing enough on it's own, you can just turn on any news conference with our president. If that doesn't convince you...well, you must be a Texan.
kickycan wrote:I think the data clearly shows that Texas is filled with mouth-breathing, sheep-f*cking, knuckle-dragging Australopitheci. And if this data isn't convincing enough on it's own, you can just turn on any news conference with our president. If that doesn't convince you...well, you must be a Texan.
There are a lot of Italians in Texas?
kickycan wrote:I think the data clearly shows that Texas is filled with mouth-breathing, sheep-f*cking, knuckle-dragging Australopitheci. And if this data isn't convincing enough on it's own, you can just turn on any news conference with our president. If that doesn't convince you...well, you must be a Texan.
or a shape-shifting, extraterrestial reptile, according to David Icke.
