Snowdon is a dummy

How would you feel if you were on a jury that sentenced an innocent man to death?

Some crimes call out for the death sentence such as Arias crime and surely the Boston Bomber.

That's nonsense, google Cameron Todd Willingham. You were the one who argued that the state of Texas should execute someone without examining DNA evidence that could exonerate him.

One big difference between imprisoning an innocent man and executing him is that you can always release the innocent man, you can't bring him back to life.

Erwin James, full name Erwin James Monahan (born 1957) is a convicted murderer and Guardian journalist. James was released in August 2004 having served 20 years of a life sentence. While in prison he wrote a regular column, and continues to write as well as do charity work since his release. While in prison he did not receive fees for his articles; instead the fees were paid to the charity, the Prisoners' Advice Service, which had helped him

One big difference between imprisoning an innocent man and executing him is that you can always release the innocent man, you can't bring him back to life.

I would cheerfully put the needle into either of those two gentlemen arms when the time came to do so.

I know you would, but not everybody fantasises about killing.

So? Why do you think they killed again? Clearly they weren't rehabilitated, and let out too soon.

Your penal system doesn't really do rehabilitation, when prisoners are used as cheap slave labour there's too much of a profit in it.

And there's been plenty of cases of people who have killed and been rehabilitated. Just one example.

Quote:

Erwin James, full name Erwin James Monahan (born 1957) is a convicted murderer and Guardian journalist. James was released in August 2004 having served 20 years of a life sentence. While in prison he wrote a regular column, and continues to write as well as do charity work since his release. While in prison he did not receive fees for his articles; instead the fees were paid to the charity, the Prisoners' Advice Service, which had helped him

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_James<br />

Almost none are used as cheap slave labor. For the most part, they are warehoused. You are correct that we do not stress rehabilitation. Another mark against us.

Prisoners earning 23 cents an hour in U.S. federal prisons are manufacturing high-tech electronic components for Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles, launchers for TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missiles, and other guided missile systems. A March article by journalist and financial researcher Justin Rohrlich of World in Review is worth a closer look at the full implications of this ominous development. (minyanville.com)

The expanding use of prison industries, which pay slave wages, as a way to increase profits for giant military corporations, is a frontal attack on the rights of all workers.

Prison labor — with no union protection, overtime pay, vacation days, pensions, benefits, health and safety protection, or Social Security withholding — also makes complex components for McDonnell Douglas/Boeing’s F-15 fighter aircraft, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, and Bell/Textron’s Cobra helicopter. Prison labor produces night-vision goggles, body armor, camouflage uniforms, radio and communication devices, and lighting systems and components for 30-mm to 300-mm battleship anti-aircraft guns, along with land mine sweepers and electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s laser rangefinder. Prisoners recycle toxic electronic equipment and overhaul military vehicles.

Labor in federal prisons is contracted out by UNICOR, previously known as Federal Prison Industries, a quasi-public, for-profit corporation run by the Bureau of Prisons. In 14 prison factories, more than 3,000 prisoners manufacture electronic equipment for land, sea and airborne communication. UNICOR is now the U.S. government’s 39th largest contractor, with 110 factories at 79 federal penitentiaries.

The majority of UNICOR’s products and services are on contract to orders from the Department of Defense. Giant multinational corporations purchase parts assembled at some of the lowest labor rates in the world, then resell the finished weapons components at the highest rates of profit. For example, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Corporation subcontract components, then assemble and sell advanced weapons systems to the Pentagon.

Increased profits, unhealthy workplaces

However, the Pentagon is not the only buyer. U.S. corporations are the world’s largest arms dealers, while weapons and aircraft are the largest U.S. export. The U.S. State Department, Department of Defense and diplomats pressure NATO members and dependent countries around the world into multibillion-dollar weapons purchases that generate further corporate profits, often leaving many countries mired in enormous debt.

But the fact that the capitalist state has found yet another way to drastically undercut union workers’ wages and ensure still higher profits to military corporations — whose weapons wreak such havoc around the world — is an ominous development.

According to CNN Money, the U.S. highly skilled and well-paid “aerospace workforce has shrunk by 40 percent in the past 20 years. Like many other industries, the defense sector has been quietly outsourcing production (and jobs) to cheaper labor markets overseas.” (Feb. 24) It seems that with prison labor, these jobs are also being outsourced domestically.

Meanwhile, dividends and options to a handful of top stockholders and CEO compensation packages at top military corporations exceed the total payment of wages to the more than 23,000 imprisoned workers who produce UNICOR parts.