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Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

nytimes.com

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Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#31

Post by sambapa »

crazygecko wrote: post #30
TotempaaltJ wrote: post #3

This is a heartbreaking story. I love playing D&D, and I can only imagine how important it is to these people in a setting like this. I hope the United States joins the rest of the western world and bans capital punishment soon--preferably yesterday.

and yet, how is death sentence any worse than life in prison? if it were me, I'd just want a quick exit rather than rotting in a cage for decades

You can always become a matematician in prison and solve one of millennium problems. That's one thing that you can't do if you're dead.

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#33

Post by tough »

pseg134 wrote: post #27
HelloMcFly wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only downside to capital punishment is that it's possible to wrongly convict someone. Other than that... For many, myself included, there is no "other than that." My core and unbending opposition to capital punishments exists solely on the fact that the punishment is irreversible and there's too many documented cases where executed prisoners were likely wrongfully convicted. I could perhaps support capital puni…

There are so many systems where some innocent people dying are just accepted and expected that it always confuses me why this one is so special. What is it about the justice system that makes you demand perfection where medicine, the military everyone else can just shrug and say sometimes an innocent person dies.

Justice was supposed to be blind and oh well, -just-

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#34

Post by crazygecko »

simonh wrote: post #17
DrThunder wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell that to their victims. The only downside to capital punishment is that it's possible to wrongly convict someone. Other than that, there are crimes that people commit where you can never trust them to be safe around people again. In that case, capital punishment is perfectly justified in my mind. The idea that keeping them in prison for life is somehow more humane is silly. The rest of the world is letting crime…

Do you think that all or most the crimes condemned prisoners in the US are currently convicted of actually rise to the level where you agree that it's appropriate? >The rest of the world is letting crime run rampant on their streets through lenient sentencing... There is extensive evidence that the severity of punishment has very little to no effect on crime rates. It's simply not something criminals generally consid…

that's because most of the "criminals" who end in prison are really victims of their society which failed them; their actions are usually impulsive, not calculated, so deterrence is largely useless. True criminals (those who do shit in cold blood for money and power) rarely go to prison.

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#35

Post by juanani »

sambapa wrote: post #31
crazygecko wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and yet, how is death sentence any worse than life in prison? if it were me, I'd just want a quick exit rather than rotting in a cage for decades

You can always become a matematician in prison and solve one of millennium problems. That's one thing that you can't do if you're dead.

[dead]

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#36

Post by crazygecko »

sambapa wrote: post #31
crazygecko wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and yet, how is death sentence any worse than life in prison? if it were me, I'd just want a quick exit rather than rotting in a cage for decades

You can always become a matematician in prison and solve one of millennium problems. That's one thing that you can't do if you're dead.

and how often does it happen?

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#37

Post by [deleted] »

resolutebat wrote: post #9
ThrowAway1922A wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some crimes deserve no less. I can somewhat buy arguments about not trusting the government, but I can't buy arguments that capital punishment is actually bad.

Some of the countries that do have death penalty, like India and Japan, reserve the death penalty for "the worst of the worst" (intentional mass murder etc). Neither of the guys profiled here qualify, and it's particularly shocking that Ford was sent to death row purely on circumstantial evidence.

[deleted]

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#38

Post by RavingGoat »

pseg134 wrote: post #27
HelloMcFly wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only downside to capital punishment is that it's possible to wrongly convict someone. Other than that... For many, myself included, there is no "other than that." My core and unbending opposition to capital punishments exists solely on the fact that the punishment is irreversible and there's too many documented cases where executed prisoners were likely wrongfully convicted. I could perhaps support capital puni…

There are so many systems where some innocent people dying are just accepted and expected that it always confuses me why this one is so special. What is it about the justice system that makes you demand perfection where medicine, the military everyone else can just shrug and say sometimes an innocent person dies.

For me, it's the incompetence and level of corruption in the US justice system starting at the police level on up. I have very little faith in it.

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#39

Post by wonderwonder »

pseg134 wrote: post #27
HelloMcFly wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only downside to capital punishment is that it's possible to wrongly convict someone. Other than that... For many, myself included, there is no "other than that." My core and unbending opposition to capital punishments exists solely on the fact that the punishment is irreversible and there's too many documented cases where executed prisoners were likely wrongfully convicted. I could perhaps support capital puni…

There are so many systems where some innocent people dying are just accepted and expected that it always confuses me why this one is so special. What is it about the justice system that makes you demand perfection where medicine, the military everyone else can just shrug and say sometimes an innocent person dies.

Because in this case its the government killing its own citizens. Medicine is human error, one person with no more legal power than the victim made the mistake. The military kills people but they are not citizens (that sounds terrible and it very much is, I am not excusing the deaths of innocents). With death row mistakes, you have the full weight of the United states government using its power to kill one of its own citizens. In addition, its a long process where the person that dies for a crime they did not commit has to witness their life taken from them one step at a time due to compounding failures. It can also happen to anyone which is the frightening part, a government actor (police, prosecutor, judge, etc) can just decide that you fit the bill and take your life from you.

I am very much in favor of executing the worst criminals but I find myself generally against the death penalty due to the risk of executing an innocent person. I am conflicted and find myself moving back and forth on this topic.

Re: Dungeons and Dragons players of death row

#40

Post by j7ake »

crazygecko wrote: post #36
sambapa wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always become a matematician in prison and solve one of millennium problems. That's one thing that you can't do if you're dead.

and how often does it happen?

You can certainly do mathematics and publish your work while in prison.

See Christopher Havens https://www.christopherhavensmath.com/

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