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South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

bbc.com

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Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#51

Post by woliveirajr »

michaericalribo wrote: post #6

This is a cruelly ironic development against the backdrop of the major DNA news in another capital case today—a potentially innocent man put to death. There is no do-over or undo, no fixing mistakes, when the death penalty is in play. The death penalty is barbaric and indefensible. The so-called criminal justice system is criminally unjust, and abolishing the death penalty is a good start towards reform (one among ma…

There's no way to undo the lost time that any bad decision causes.

Time you lose that you should be with your family, the last hugs/words that you couldn't give, the wife/husband that had to work harder because you weren't there, the now ex- that moved along with life

One problem is that money, apologies, a gold medal, doesn't bring back the lost past

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#52

Post by eindiran »

pmoriarty wrote: post #46
eindiran wrote: post #2

Death by firing squad is relatively humane (especially in comparison to electrocution), so if you really need to have capital punishment and your options are electrocution and firing squad, the choice is pretty clear. I think the reason executions moved away from firing squad was that it was mentally taxing of the people in the firing squad, not because the alternatives were more humane.

What is the point of the death penalty if not vengeance? And if it's vengeance, how can vengeance ever be humane?

To be clear, I am absolutely not defending capital punishment as a practice. My point is just that, if you have already decided that you are going to do it, like SC has, it is much better for it to be by firing squad than for it to be by electrocution, which was the proposed alternative.

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#53

Post by kyriakos »

pmoriarty wrote: post #46
eindiran wrote: post #2

Death by firing squad is relatively humane (especially in comparison to electrocution), so if you really need to have capital punishment and your options are electrocution and firing squad, the choice is pretty clear. I think the reason executions moved away from firing squad was that it was mentally taxing of the people in the firing squad, not because the alternatives were more humane.

What is the point of the death penalty if not vengeance? And if it's vengeance, how can vengeance ever be humane?

I'm against death penalty but for the sake of discussion I don't think it's purpose is vengeance or torture but because society deems that some crimes are irredeemable and are a way of avoiding having to keep the criminal detained indefinitely.

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#54

Post by _y5hn »

kyriakos wrote: post #53
pmoriarty wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point of the death penalty if not vengeance? And if it's vengeance, how can vengeance ever be humane?

I'm against death penalty but for the sake of discussion I don't think it's purpose is vengeance or torture but because society deems that some crimes are irredeemable and are a way of avoiding having to keep the criminal detained indefinitely.

Comparing costs:

https://www.thebalance.com/comparing-the-costs-of-death-pena...

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#55

Post by _y5hn »

dopidopHN wrote: post #35
nathanvanfleet wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The good old binary. Let's just assume we _have_ to kill someone. We just have too. Now let's assume there are two ways to kill people. Nice. Gotta shoot em is the right answer.

Correct. The right answer is obviously a guillotine. The real humane way to solve this binary problem

Why stop there? America First supported Weimar Republic, which killing method landed on gas being most efficient for helpless civilians. Disrupts prison showers too.

Maybe it wasn't a solution though.

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#56

Post by _y5hn »

tapland wrote: post #16
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be instructive to look at how people choose to die when they have a free choice. Ah, what am I saying, why am I trying to think of better ways to execute people? We should just stop doing that.

Since it was an invention to make it easier on people who do the executions, yes we probably don't have to focus on optimizing our disconnect to killing.

Indeed. There's also the point of making it as cheap as possible, or profitable to rich people, like with soylent green.

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#58

Post by kyriakos »

_y5hn wrote: post #54
kyriakos wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm against death penalty but for the sake of discussion I don't think it's purpose is vengeance or torture but because society deems that some crimes are irredeemable and are a way of avoiding having to keep the criminal detained indefinitely.

Comparing costs: https://www.thebalance.com/comparing-the-costs-of-death-pena...

I honestly didn't know this. I live in a country where death penalty sounds like a medieval thing. On the other hand I really don't understand how you take vengeance by killing someone. I understand it can be a deterrent for serious crime though.

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#59

Post by _y5hn »

kyriakos wrote: post #58
_y5hn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing costs: https://www.thebalance.com/comparing-the-costs-of-death-pena...

I honestly didn't know this. I live in a country where death penalty sounds like a medieval thing. On the other hand I really don't understand how you take vengeance by killing someone. I understand it can be a deterrent for serious crime though.

Vengeance is mostly learned behaviour and ideology.

Re: South Carolina moves closer to allowing death by firing squad

#60

Post by JoeyBananas »

progman32 wrote: post #45
JoeyBananas wrote: post #42

I believe the death penalty is necessary because some people do not deserve to live. Why can we justify killing people by shooting them as a necessary barbaric act during war, but not recognize that the worst criminals deserve the same treatment? It's absurd to think that as a society we are above killing because it's an inevitable part of life. I say murderers should not be able to kill others without having to fear…

I see where you're coming from, but I contest the assertion that it's an inevitable part of life.

It's inevitable in the sense that there will always be some murders and war will never completely end.
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