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Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

tdcj.texas.gov

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Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#121

Post by dvt »

namdnay wrote: post #116
dvt wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah it would definitely be less acute, still there every day, but less acute. Like most trauma. I hope you realize you are co-opting someone's pain for your own political or ethical brownie points. A lot of people are completely happy watching their child's murderer/rapist be punished via the death penalty. You're just trivializing an incredibly complex moral conundrum.

I get the feeling you're projecting a bit? "co-opting someone's pain" means using someone's (inferred) pain to justify something you believe in.

[flagged]

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#124

Post by coreyp_1 »

A SQL-learning resource that uses this the death row last words dataset as the teaching matter: https://selectstarsql.com/

I used this website when teaching. I did not do it to advance a political agenda, and I was very upfront with the students on that. Rather, I saw it as a strong opportunity to expose them to the variety and humanity of data that is available. The Social Security babynames dataset was also a good resource.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#125

Post by conductr »

jackson1442 wrote: post #78
dilap wrote: post #42

I was amused by the Texan racial categories: White, Black, Hispanic, Other Spot checking a handful of statements, it seems like most people executed found God, peace, and remorse at the end. Though at least one person never stopped proclaiming innocence: > I’m not the one that killed Christina, so whatever makes ya’ll happy. I wonder how many on the list were, in fact, innocent.

That's my biggest issue with capital punishment. You can't take it back, if you're wrong you just killed someone's child, parent, sibling, or combination thereof. While being sentenced to years of prison for a crime you didn't commit is also horrible, you can at the very least be released if you're found innocent.

The current process is a middle ground. Stay on death row for decades to ultimately be executed (after likelihood of being found innocent is extremely small).

I like the idea of capital punishment because I don't want to pay to keep murderers alive for decades. I feel like the bigger issue is, and what pushes me to think twice on the issue, people get found guilty of murder "without a reasonable doubt" on purely circumstantial evidence and on crappy "eye witness" testimony (people can feel certain they saw something they absolutely did not.)

If I were a juror, that wouldn't cut it for me. I'd need pretty hard evidence to give someone the death sentence. If that hard evidence was there, why give them room and board for 20 years before the execution? It's a total waste of money and further drag on society beyond the crime committed.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#126

Post by Nextgrid »

ceejayoz wrote: post #56
dvt wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> there's this thing called justice In pursuit of justice, we sometimes tip over into revenge . Given the fact that we've sent innocent people to their executions, I'm uncomfortable labeling it justice.

The implementation of the death penalty itself is vengeful and barbaric.

Accidents in enclosed spaces lacking oxygen provide plenty of prior art for killing a human without panic nor suffering. I believe certain drugs such as morphine in high enough doses would also induce death with minimal pain.

Yet the state-sponsored murderers still use barbaric methods. Even in states where the "gas chamber" is a thing, cyanide is used instead of inert gases such as nitrogen, despite the latter surely being cheaper, easier to procure and safer to handle for the murderers and the rest of prison staff.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#127

Post by dvt »

ceejayoz wrote: post #105
dvt wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, because the default, prima facia, position is that killing people is bad and causes pain and requires some kind of response. That's why arguing against the death penalty is actually quite hard. Especially when faced with incontrovertible evidence (video/confessions/etc.).

Life in prison isn't a response? Re: the edit, calling confessions "incontrovertible" is... unsupported. https://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvict...

> Life in prison isn't a response?

It is. Some people argue that it's actually a more harsh punishment than death, though. A lot of rich literature here.

> calling confessions "incontrovertible"

You're missing the forest for the trees, my point was "assuming guilt by default... blah blah." I know confessions aren't technically always reliable.

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#128

Post by escapedmoose »

hoten wrote: post #88
escapedmoose wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t you feel anything reading through these? It doesn’t remind you of the humanity of these people?

The question still stands. Why does the state bother to record them? What purpose does it serve for the pro capital punishment government to humanize those it executes?

I’m too lazy to research this, but maybe some do-gooder managed to push it through legislation at some point so now they have to?

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#129

Post by namdnay »

LarryMullins wrote: post #96
dejj wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 3 aspects to criminal justice: - special prevention - general prevention (=deterrence) - revenge

I understand it to be: - retribution (revenge) - deterrence - rehabilitation - incapacitation (they can't re-offend if they're in prison or dead) In these sort of discussions about justice online, the first is often cast as illegitimate, the second as impossible, the third as the gold standard, and the fourth is frequently ignored completely. Few people ever defend retribution, so I will here. Many people who are vic…

> If the government does not play at least some lip service to the desire for retribution, then more people will take it into their own hands. They'll seek vigilante justice.

If that were the case, we'd see significantly higher amounts of "vigilante justice" in countries that have abolished the death penalty, right?

I think "vigilante justice" is more often than not "vigilante policing", when people believe criminals aren't being sufficiently investigated and arrested, not when people believe criminals aren't being sufficiently executed

Re: Texas Records All Inmates Last Words Before Execution And Puts Them All Online

#130

Post by lom »

I hope people understand the grave injustice by the state. There are 300 people on death row, and everyone is not a monster. Texas is carrying out a very inhumane and injustice. It's not right to kill anybody just because I killed your people. Everyone changes, right? Life is about experience and people change. […] I hope you don't find satisfaction in this, watching a human being die.

Executed for killing another inmate in a fight..

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