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The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 7:42:43 AM   
BonesFromAsh


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Status: offline 		http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10347166.stm 

quote:


Convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner, who had spent 25 years on death row, was executed soon after midnight local time (0600 GMT), after a final appeal had been rejected.
Gardner, 49, chose the firing squad before Utah banned the method in 2004. Critics say it is barbaric, harking back to the Wild West.
Gardner was only the third man put to death in this way in the US since 1976.


Let me start by saying this is not a question of whether or not the death penalty is acceptable, although I'm sure that will be mentioned and in some ways it does matter in regards to a person's answer.  My question, though, concerns the method with which it is carried out and it's effectiveness.
That being said, I'll let this discussion go where it might in the hope that everyone will try to remember the basis of my question. 

According to this site http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/home  the majority of executions are done by lethal injection with electrocution followed as a second method, according to the information given on the Fact Sheet pdf found here http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf   Death by firing squad ranks the lowest. 

The question I have is does the method used have any bearing on whether or not the point of the execution, which is suppose to be as a deterrent to crime, is effective? 
Will the example of the recent execution by firing squad in Utah be as effective as a lethal injection execution? 

Does the method matter? Why or why not? 
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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 7:44:36 AM   
thishereboi


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Status: offline 		It would not matter to me. Dead is dead.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 7:47:37 AM   
Jeffff


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Status: offline 		I'd like to be shot. There are always problems with the other ways.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 7:48:04 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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Status: offline 		It's all wrong so the method is irrelevant.

Kind of wonder who amongst his executioners is happy knowing that they had a hand is someone's death i.e. just because the state told them they could kill this man?

One of those is going to end up wondering if he didn't have the blanks, seems unfair to ask anyone to do this and those that give it no thought at all shouldn't be in that position.


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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 7:49:05 AM   
Aneirin


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Status: offline 		Dead is dead, even though it costs three times as much to execute a person than keep them in prison for the rest of their life. You in the US must sure have a lot of money to go to such extravagances.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:02:39 AM   
BonesFromAsh


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Dead is dead


quote:


The question I have is does the method used have any bearing on whether or not the point of the execution, which is suppose to be as a deterrent to crime, is effective? 


Yes, dead is dead, but that wasn't what I was asking.  Basically, one of the uses of the death penalty in the US, as I'm given to understand it, is as a deterrent to crime.  What I'm wanting to know is whether or not the method used to carry it out matters in that respect.

*edited for clarity

< Message edited by BonesFromAsh -- 6/18/2010 8:07:13 AM >

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:06:21 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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Status: offline 		Obviously not if you can decide yourself how it's done.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:09:58 AM   
Moonhead


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quote:

ORIGINAL: thishereboi

It would not matter to me. Dead is dead.

You'd be just as happy getting hung, drawn and quartered or crucified as you would to be shot, then?

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:12:49 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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Status: offline 		As long as they did the hanging first.

It's being drawn, quartered and hung I take issue with.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:15:33 AM   
Moonhead


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quote:

ORIGINAL: SL4V3M4YB3

As long as they did the hanging first.

It's being drawn, quartered and hung I take issue with.

The way they used to do that was they cut people down from the rope before they'd finished strangling: it was nothing like a hanging where they'd drop the poor bastard far enough to break their neck.
Drawing and quatrtering somebody would be no fun is they were dead, would it?

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:16:48 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:16:59 AM   
Aneirin


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quote:

ORIGINAL: BonesFromAsh

quote:

ORIGINAL: Aneirin

Dead is dead


quote:


The question I have is does the method used have any bearing on whether or not the point of the execution, which is suppose to be as a deterrent to crime, is effective? 


Yes, dead is dead, but that wasn't what I was asking.  Basically, one of the uses of the death penalty in the US, as I'm given to understand it, is as a deterrent to crime.  What I'm wanting to know is whether or not the method used to carry it out matters in that respect.

*edited for clarity


As a civilised authority which uses the death penalty, then the best way to initiate this sentance, is as cleanly and painlessly as possible, even take a pill before the person goes to sleep and the result is they don't wake up, they have died in their sleep. That is if the purpose of having a death penalty is to rid society of people who are a danger, and assault the mind of the condemned that they are finished, the law will put an end to them.

But if on the other hand the death penalty is about retribution, then pain comes into it, the electric chair, hanging or firing squad or whatever suits the mind of whoever that decides.

Edited to add, but what is the point of someone spending years on death row only to be executed what in the case of the one that went last night, 25 years, what's the point. If execution is to be used as a deterrant, then it needs to be performed straight away, not let people get used to the idea and even forget about the condemned or even what they did.


< Message edited by Aneirin -- 6/18/2010 8:23:37 AM >

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:24:36 AM   
BonesFromAsh


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Status: offline 		So, to be effective, execution should take the form of a peaceful death for the convicted?


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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:27:23 AM   
Moonhead


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quote:

ORIGINAL: BonesFromAsh

So, to be effective, execution should take the form of a peaceful death for the convicted?



Isn't the penalty death rather than pain? I think there's something in the legal codes of the States that still have a death penalty about that. There's definitely something in your constitution about cruel and unusual punishments, which is presumably why California and Texas don't practise auto da fes.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:28:25 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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Status: offline 		Personally I think there should be this massive mouse trap with a huge chunk of cheese, this is the best approach to state sanctioned killing.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:29:44 AM   
flcouple2009


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Status: offline 		If it is going to be a deterrent they should be public, painful, and ugly.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:33:53 AM   
Aneirin


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Status: offline 		I don't believe the death penalty is an effective deterrant against crime, I mean people are being executed and heinous crimes still happen, so it as a deterrant, I doubt, because it clearly does not work.

In which case as it is not working as a deterrant, why continue, unless it is about retribution.

But yes, my belief is if authority is setting laws for civilised society, then authority should likewise be civilised and an example for others to work to. If the only means to adequately punish a person is to kill them, then it must be done in a civilised way, or else authority can be deemed to be just as barbaric as the one condemned.

But the prospect of dying, we all go through it daily, in the things that we do. Some say they fear death, but maybe they don't, else why do they continue on their path, Death happens to us all sooner or later, that is a surety, and given what can happen in a person's life, death can be seen as a soft option in comparison to enduring a living hell.


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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:37:57 AM   
SL4V3M4YB3


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From: S.E. London U.K.
Status: offline 		It doesn't work because nobody ever really contemplates getting caught unless they are the type that wants that kind of attention. In which case they are fully signed up to the consequences beforehand. So it doesn't faze them either way.

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:40:22 AM   
kdsub


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Status: offline 		I know you want to keep the comments away from the right or wrong of Capital Punishment...but to me at least you are wrong on one important part. You think CP is a deterrent to crime…I think you are wrong. It is out and out punishment. The forfeiture of a right to life for heinous crimes against mankind.

It also prevents that person from killing again which a portion of convicted murderers do…either when paroled or when in prison.

But to get to your point I think the method makes no difference when it comes to preventing crime…but on a personal level I think I would want a firing squad rather then hanging, gas chamber, or the electric chair.

I do however wonder how people are recruited to the firing squad… I do hope they have a choice.

Butch

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RE: The death penalty...does the method matter? - 6/18/2010 8:43:48 AM   
Moonhead


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Status: offline 		There's absolutely no evidence that capital punishment has ever worked as a deterrent to crime anywhere.

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I like to think he was eaten by rats, in the dark, during a fog. It's what he would have wanted...
(Simon R Green on the late James Herbert)

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