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A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

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Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#121

Post by eaurouge »

tshile wrote: post #111

Wait, are we actually supposed to get worked up over this? The ACLU so clearly tip toed while writing the descriptions of these cases as to clearly walk a line between lying about the case and giving us the context needed to understand why these people are in jail for life. "Patrick had no violent criminal history and had never served a single day in a Department of Corrections facility" - Right, but he obviously had…

Three strikes on drug convictions is unfair - especially given the disparity in sentencing for crack cocain vs. other drugs. Do you have any idea how many privileged celebrities would be in jail (some for life) if drug crimes were enforced fairly and uniformly?

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#122

Post by clarky07 »

mikeash wrote: post #115
clarky07 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

come on now. this article is intentionally downplaying the severity of the offenses here. breaking and entering is a serious crime. it isn't a speeding ticket. "inadvertently killing someone" is code for beat the shit out of him and he died, but i didn't mean to kill him. only maim. again, not a speeding ticket.

I never compared his crimes to speeding tickets. I merely used that as an example of something clearly on one side of the line. What is happening lately? The quality of discourse on this site has become absolutely atrocious.

all i said was "come on now." Sorry if I came off too defensive. I was simply pointing out that these crimes are clearly on the other side of that line.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#123

Post by tshile »

Mithaldu wrote: post #92
clarky07 wrote: post #85

Am I the only one here not seeing this as propaganda with nicely worded articles masking a lot of the reality here? Some of them seem a little unreasonable I'll agree, but lets go through a few of these: "taking a wallet from a hotel room" - we blame it on the court appointed lawyer. He's already been convicted and sent to jail twice for burglary and he continues to break into other peoples places and steal their stu…

There's a principle in justice: A punishment fitting the crime. As the document points out, people who raped or murdered, sometimes more than once, can leave prison after 5-15 years, depending on behavior. Meanwhile those people listed will never be able to leave, even if they spend 50 years with impeccable and absolitely perfect behavior.

Crimes. Plural, not singular. Three strikes laws exist for a reason.

Does stealing a wallet justify sitting in jail for life? No.

Does getting caught committing your third burglary? Well, that's a much more interesting question and everyone is obviously entitled to their own opinions. But no one is entitled to completely twist the facts and then demand everyone agree with them or feel sorry for their own positions on it.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#124

Post by Amadou »

rfnslyr wrote: post #22
spodek wrote: post #7

It's a crying shame. Normally that's an empty phrase, but it describes this. I can't imagine reading this and not feeling tears well up. No sense of what I would call humanity. From what perspective does this make the world a better place? What am I missing about being human that this fits into that I don't understand?

Does anybody else constantly live in a state of guilt? So many lives lost and wars fought just to get us to where we are, and we reap the benefits. I feel so guilty for having a good paying job in the city. I'm not adding any value to the world, none at all. I tinker with a few codes every day and make silly amounts of money, when there's people struggling to put food on the table working 18 hour days. I need to do s…

What can I do?

Don't do it from a place of guilt, find something that you feel passionately about, cut back on the meaningless and lucrative tinkering and start tinkering for your passion. Your most valuable contribution to the world is your time, arrange your life so that you can spend as much time as possible, without burning out, on something meaningful to you.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#125

Post by latch »

lostlogin wrote: post #33
spodek wrote: post #7

It's a crying shame. Normally that's an empty phrase, but it describes this. I can't imagine reading this and not feeling tears well up. No sense of what I would call humanity. From what perspective does this make the world a better place? What am I missing about being human that this fits into that I don't understand?

Failure to sign the Ottawa treaty (anti landmine) and the international criminal court agreements, execution of minors (and execution at all), assassination of opponents even if citizens (via drones), torture, war crimes, illegal invasions, use of phosphorus (probably comes under war crimes), continual killing of civilians in non declared wars, massive prison population, secret prisons, outsourcing torture, supportin…

It's easy to distill these issues and hold a self-righteous opinion, but I personally find most too complex to form anything resembling an educated opinion.

Take land mines. I've heard that they play a critical role in South Korea's defense, which was a major reason Clinton didn't sign. Military experts talk about how it's an effective tool that, when used responsibly, can benefit civilians more than harm them.

They also kill and maim people.

Intellectually, both sides seem reasonable to me. Of course, emotionally, one is passively helping people (or so we are told), while the other is actively harming them, so, ya, I lean towards being anti land mines. But, I fundamentally can't shake the feeling that I have no clue what's going on, so maybe I shouldn't be too quick to judge.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#126

Post by eruditely »

hobs wrote: post #3
mschuster91 wrote: post #2

As an European citizen, I think such "sentences" are more resembling China, Russia or any other dictatorship, but not a first-world country. Do human rights actually mean something in the US?

If you are poor? Not really. Every person that I see listed was not able to afford a decent lawyer.

This highlights the necessity of putting yourself in a good financial situation, otherwise be put in prison or just be black I suppose.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#127

Post by chc »

mikeash wrote: post #115
clarky07 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

come on now. this article is intentionally downplaying the severity of the offenses here. breaking and entering is a serious crime. it isn't a speeding ticket. "inadvertently killing someone" is code for beat the shit out of him and he died, but i didn't mean to kill him. only maim. again, not a speeding ticket.

I never compared his crimes to speeding tickets. I merely used that as an example of something clearly on one side of the line. What is happening lately? The quality of discourse on this site has become absolutely atrocious.

My theory: Hacker News has been allowing more political stories through, which attracts a certain kind of poster, which has the effect of lowering the level of discourse overall (even among erstwhile "good" commenters). The actual political threads themselves, like this one, tend to be a little ahead of the curve.

The strong aversion to politics was one of the things I liked about Hacker News. A lot of political issues are important, but they always turn discussion sites into dull point-scoring. Hopefully the moderators clamp down before it's too late.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#129

Post by eruditely »

hobs wrote: post #3
mschuster91 wrote: post #2

As an European citizen, I think such "sentences" are more resembling China, Russia or any other dictatorship, but not a first-world country. Do human rights actually mean something in the US?

If you are poor? Not really. Every person that I see listed was not able to afford a decent lawyer.

This highlights the necessity of putting yourself in a good financial situation, otherwise be put in prison or just be black I suppose.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#130

Post by eruditely »

hobs wrote: post #3
mschuster91 wrote: post #2

As an European citizen, I think such "sentences" are more resembling China, Russia or any other dictatorship, but not a first-world country. Do human rights actually mean something in the US?

If you are poor? Not really. Every person that I see listed was not able to afford a decent lawyer.

This highlights the necessity of putting yourself in a good financial situation, otherwise be put in prison or just be black I suppose.
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