The Death Penalty in Louisiana • Hacker News Board

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#51

Post by at-fates-hands » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:50 PM UTC

Justsignedup wrote: post #20

Shivetya wrote: post #17

The death penalty isn't the problem and never has. There are far too many people who have no place in society and there is zero benefit to society to continue their existence. That being said, abuse by the legal system of those who cannot afford to defend themselves properly has gone on for far too long and its not just a Southern thing. From the bail bond market to the plea bargain junket of Federal Courts, justice…

The death penalty is a problem: - it never really acts as a deterrent - often the person on death row is basically in solitary confinement. So even if they are released, they are released crazy - the penalty is quite final. there is no appealing afterwards - it is mostly about revenge - ripe with abuse

You forgot the part about executing innocent people.

Currently the rate is roughly for every 10 guilty people who are executed, 1 innocent person is executed.

I don't care how you cut that statistic, it's too much.

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#52

Post by vezzy-fnord » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:50 PM UTC

sageabilly wrote: post #13

"Cox does not believe that the death penalty works as a deterrent, but he says that it is justified as revenge." That is so, so fucked up. An attorney, someone whose job it is to impartially argue the law, equally to everyone, saying "Yeah you know, we kill people FOR REVENGE ." Not even, you know, hey if we have the death penalty it'll maybe make people think twice about committing a serious crime, but straight up s…

The analogy to revenge doesn't even make much sense unless you assume that capital crimes are against the state as opposed to persons.

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#53

Post by eghad » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:51 PM UTC

How is that we have a system where we have an assistant district attorney (now running for DA) who not only openly believes we need to kill more people, but thinks they deserve to suffer as much physical pain as "humanly possible"? I mean his own colleagues question his mental instability, and nothing happens. When no one is willing to actually disbar someone like this, where are the effective checks on power?

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#54

Post by saturdaysaint » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:51 PM UTC

If "deterrence" theories had any validity, the Middle Ages would be remembered as a golden age of peace and civility. Conversely, shouldn't states without the death penalty be positively crime ridden compared to the revenge-happy southern states? I'm being somewhat trite, but it doesn't take too many thought experiments and statistical exercises to see that revenge doesn't serve justice.

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#55

Post by davedx » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:52 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #15

nickthemagicman wrote: post #2

I live in Louisiana. America has the highest incarceration rate per capita amongst all countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera... Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_incarce... Tis truly a messed up place.

We also have one of the highest crime rates among developed countries. Consider, for example, intentional homicides: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention... Louisiana has the highest murder rate in the US (double the national average): http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder-rates-nationally-and-... Any analysis of # of people in jail which ignores the underlying crime rates is deeply flawed.

For the intentional homicides data you linked, the US is at #111, right in the middle.

Try again?

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#56

Post by mikeash » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:52 PM UTC

happyscrappy wrote: post #19

ablation wrote: post #14

No matter how many times I read about the death penalty in America, I just can't wrap my head around the fact that it still exists, that the powers that be kill their own citizens in such a way. It's so incredibly horrifying to me that it almost becomes an abstract concept, but then you read an article like this and - guilty or innocent - the true human cost and all that associated suffering comes right back to you.

When the Boston Bomber was sentenced to death you heard...crickets.

I heard a ton of interviews of random people on the street in Boston condemning the sentence. Maybe you were listening to the entomology channel by accident.

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#57

Post by happyscrappy » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:52 PM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #44

happyscrappy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'd rather not have this discussion here and now Yes, because you want politics on HN, but only the politics you agree with. All political articles should be flagged.

Yes, because you want politics on HN On what do you base this assertion? It's not like the parent poster submitted this article.

He or she wants to debate the death penalty but thinks abortion is out of bounds.

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#58

Post by crisnoble » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:53 PM UTC

Dale Cox was only one person in the article who I felt deserved to be put on put on trial.

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#59

Post by mikeash » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:53 PM UTC

seivan wrote: post #43

DanBC wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The death penalty is more expensive than life in prison. If the US didn't imprison so many people they'd easily be able to afford to house the actually violent criminals.

Does it have to be that expensive? Have there been efforts to cut costs? I don't disagree with the second statement, frivolous prison sentences cause all sorts of problems, but I disagree that life sentence costs are insignificant.

Making an effort to cut costs is likely to mean that more innocent people get executed.

Re: The Death Penalty in Louisiana

#60

Post by Jtsummers » Wed, Jul 01, 2015, 1:57 PM UTC

eghad wrote: post #53

How is that we have a system where we have an assistant district attorney (now running for DA) who not only openly believes we need to kill more people, but thinks they deserve to suffer as much physical pain as "humanly possible"? I mean his own colleagues question his mental instability, and nothing happens. When no one is willing to actually disbar someone like this, where are the effective checks on power?

> I mean his own colleagues question his mental instability, and nothing happens.

From my reading it seemed the colleagues questioning his stability were colleagues by profession, not employer. Or they'd worked together many years earlier. Some suspected that he'd become inundated with the culture in the local DA's office, in which case he might not be so unstable compared to the rest (where they put up pictures of KKK founders). The checks, in this case, are with the voters of the parish, which seems unfortunate because they also elected his predecessor who was obviously satisfied with Cox's work to keep him on for so long.