I admitted it probably isn't right how I feel but it is what it is nevertheless. And to be honest one of the first things my mom said to me after it happened and I said "when they catch whoever did this I hope they kill him." She told em that it wasn't right and teo wrongs don't make a right, so on, and so on. Then she heard he had planned my death also, while she never actually agreed with me after that I was NEVER corrected and would always get an approving humph.
I agree with you, if your own mom is in favor of the death penalty in that situation, then you shouldn't feel bad at all for thinking that way. I know you had a loving mom, just like i did, and when you have a loving mom, you respect her wishes and her philosophy. To me there is nothing that "isn't right" about that. Granted, you pointed out that your Mom didn't have very firm views on this issue, but my parents are very firm with their views on this issue.
Kill 'em all. In fact, I'm in favor of executing anyone who was arrested on "Cops". And those idiots on "Wildest Car Chases"? Bang! Dead.
According to that article, China was #1 in executions last year with 470. The US was #5 with 42. China has around 1.3 billion people (#1), the US has around 300,000,000 people (#3). I don't feel like doing the math, but it would be interesting to know which countries are the top 5 when it comes to the most government-sanctioned annual executions per capita. Here's a list of the countries that executed the most people in 2007: 1. China 470+ 2. Iran 317+ 3. Saudi Arabia 143+ 4. Pakistan 135+ 5. USA 42 6. Iraq 33+ See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment Here's a list of the largest countries by population: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population
I favor the death penalty but I feel the states should retain the right to determine whether or not they have it and the criteria by which it would be used. I feel the death penalty should be restricted to multiple killings and killings that involve some exceptional element such as torture, the age of the victim and correctional officers in a prison.
You cannot just ignore eyewitiness testimony, but with the understanding that such testimony is not alway reliable, particularly when the witness is white and the defendant is black. I agree that there has to be further forensic and physical evidence.
If a state is going to use the death penalty it has the obligation to be as humane as possible. Causing as much pain and discomfort as possible is not conducive to criminal justice. It can only hurt the effort to retain the death penalty by giving the opponents of capital punishment more amunition to use in their arguments. In addition, the constitution forbids "cruel and unusual punishment." To deliberately cause an undue and avoidable degree of pain is certainly cruel and unusual by most anyone's definition - certainly the Supreme Court's. From an emotional standpoint I have no doubt that some of these guys are getting off easy, but we don't make decisons based on emotion; we make them based on reason and principle - hopefully. Also, while there are legitimate reasons for favoring the death penalty, economic convenience is not one of them. Putting someone to death because it is cheaper than keeping him in prison only serves to cheapen ourselves. The value of human life - any human life - cannot be relegated to dollars and cents.
I really, really am trying to stay away from this thread because my feelings polotical nor religious, they are because of personal relationships. My testimony was key to certain element leading up to the murders, like, him pulling his mother to the side for "private conversations" later she told me he was wondering whether or not she still did opening the way his father had, his fingerprints her on the girls bathroom and that was where her dog (that was there so she could bring him to the vet after we finished the opening stuff) was locked up at. Btw the dog had as but bore a hole in the door by the time we let her out. Also I had to pick his accomplice out in a line up cuz they figured they cased the place when taking her for private conversations. The guy that I picked out was the one when pressured with the death penalty old everything, including where they threw the keys, that they were suppose to kill all of us, where the car was left (which was not leaked to the media), where and how the shot her, and some horrible things about her final words and and by those words gave us an insight into her thoughts before they shot her. My testimony helped helped immensly in finding them and if it would have gone to court I was what was going to be considered a key witness for the lead up to the murder. Thank goodness it never came to that as having to be on stand retelling this story could have been the end of me! But I lived in fear of it for years with supeona every 4 months.
