Time To End The Death Penalty On America?

[ichkeria]

For some reason I thought most Americans supported it but it seems not.

The president elect has vowed to try to end it officially and from this it would appear that the current administration thinks he has a good chance of success.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55236260

[Jackdaw33]

The average time in Britain between sentence and execution was six weeks. This allowed time for any appeal to be heard and for the Home Secretary to review the case. It was an unwritten rule that if for any reason a prisoner could not be executed within three months of sentence he was automatically reprieved.

[andy-hughes]

Given that Trump has nothing more to lose than the vanishing shreds f what diginity he might once have possessed, it is hard not to look at his actions here as the last spiteful two fingers to his opponent in the election even he is finally getting around to accepting that he has lost.

America's legal system in terms of the death penalty is broken beyond repair, with inmates spending decades on death row as appeals are brought, argued over, and dismissed.

An end to this barbaric practice would do much to improve America's seriously damaged reputation with the rest of the world, quite apart from being the action of a civilised society, which has not place for state sponsored and sanctioned murder.

[TrevorThePug]

A 40 year old man was executed in Indiana last night after being jailed at the age of 20 for killing 2 people. Time on death row: 20 years.

[emmie]

yes i read that this morning, they shot the couple then set fire to the car, back in 1999 i believe, still if you are in USA then its a given if you do this type of crime and get caught its going only end badly

[emmie]

he wasn't the shooter by all accounts, he was executed some months ago

[Jackdaw33]

This one is next:

Lisa Montgomery fatally strangled a pregnant woman, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, cut open her body, and kidnapped her baby. In December 2004, as part of a premeditated murder-kidnap scheme, Montgomery drove from her home in Kansas to Stinnett’s home in Missouri, purportedly to purchase a puppy. Once inside the residence, Montgomery attacked and strangled Stinnett—who was eight months pregnant—until the victim lost consciousness. Using a kitchen knife, Montgomery then cut into Stinnett’s abdomen, causing her to regain consciousness. A struggle ensued, and Montgomery strangled Stinnett to death. Montgomery then removed the baby from Stinnett’s body, took the baby with her, and attempted to pass it off as her own. Montgomery subsequently confessed to murdering Stinnett and abducting her child. In October 2007, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri found Montgomery guilty of federal kidnapping resulting in death, and unanimously recommended a death sentence, which the court imposed. Her conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal, and her request for collateral relief was rejected by every court that considered it. Montgomery is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 8, 2020, at U.S. Penitentiary Terre Haute, Indiana.

No doubt some will see this as an excess punishment; I don't.

[emmie]

horrible jack,

[Deskdiary]

I am against the death penalty, and always have been, been when you read about a crime so utterly evil as that shown in Jackdaw's post, there is an argument for a wavering of my belief.

I know it would never happen, and no doubt people would argue it's impossible, but perhaps there should be 'beyond reasonable doubt', plus a greater proof of 'no doubt'.

As we have seen so many times in the past, people have been convicted beyond reasonable doubt reasonable, and then the conviction has been overturned.

It's a difficult one for me with my stance of being fundamentally against the death penalty.

[emmie]

some would like it brought back to UK, it won't happen of course too many executions in the past that were wrong

[david small]

Some vermin deserve to die. If bang to rights, unequivocally guilty of some heinous taking of life.
Dispose of said creature as soon as.

[Paigntonian]

Yet another reason was Bill Clinton was such a ***, rushing home to ensure that a black guy with a mental age of ten was executed during his first presidential campaign.

[emmie]

it won''t happen david, perhaps if they got life no parole for heinous crimes like the bombings in Manchester arena, though the brother won't come out by the looks of it.

[Jackdaw33]

//Too many executions in the past that were wrong\\

I can think of only one in modern times: Evans, who put his own head in the noose by making a full confession that he had murdered his wife and daughter.

[emmie]

long ago perhaps but we executed people for minor offences, we don;t any more

[emmie]

Ruth Ellis the last woman to be hanged, sure there are others.

[emmie]

we don't have the death penalty anymore perhaps that is a good thing, we are after all supposed to be civilised nation. I would like to see stiffer penalties though for heinous crimes, those that are undisputed. Like terrorists, for instance.

[emmie]

life in prison no parole would do.

[Jackdaw33]

Ruth Ellis was found guilty of pumping six bullets into her lover's body, one of which ricoched and injured a passer-by. There may well have been grounds for a reprieve but at the time gun crime was on the increase due to the number of weapons captured during the war. A reprieve would have sent the wrong message. This was two years before the introduction of the partial defence of Diminished Responsibility which, if it had been available and accepted by the jury, would have reduced the charge to manslaughter, a non-capital offence.

[emmie]

some then might argue we have moved on since then.

[emmie]

there are times when i wished we had the death penalty, but feel that as i said we are supposedly a civilised nation and we have moved on from times when we executed those for triffling offences.