Is capital punishment a crime?

[pinto]

Poll question: Is capital punishment a crime?

[Cyrano]

1. Not if carried out on someone who believes in capital punishment.

[cheezus]

4. That's like saying ethnic cleansing isn't a crime if you belive in it

[Cyrano]

6. SARCASM ALERT

[cheezus]

7. see, for sarcasm to work well

it needs to be apparent

[Cyrano]

11. Well, let's see.

People who believe in ethnic cleansing have no intention of being ethnically cleansed themselves. Try reading #1 again in that light.

On edit: Sorry about nuancing.

[genius]

2. It's murder and it's supporters are murderers.

That's how I truly feel. If you don't like it, tough.

[Mandate My Ass]

3. What genius said (eom)

[Jake_DeLeon]

5. Not in most states in the US.

[dr.strangelove]

8. You mean - Should it be a crime.

Capital Punishment is legal. Its morally wrong and should be illegal, but its not. I worked on a death penalty case recently and have some of the stats available.

Capital Punishment was "voluntarily abandoned" (some state supreme courts bounced it, but most states were waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on it and self imposed a moritorium) by the US and all its states in 1967. Several US Supreme Court cases eventually held unconstitutional. Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 153 (1972) struck down all federal and state capital punishment laws permitting discretion in the application of the death penalty.

States then drafted laws to avoid this decision. Most states provided for so called "guided discretion." These laws were upheld by the Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976), Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262 (1976), and Proffitt v. Florida, 428 U.S. 242 (1976). These laws allow the death sentences for specified crimes if they use "bifurcated trials." (the first stage the determination of a defendant's guilt or innocence and the second stage the determination of the sentence after consideration of aggravating and mitigating circumstances).

Some states tried to pass laws which provided for a mandatory death sentence for specific crimes. These were declared unconstitutional in Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280 (1976) and Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325 (1976).

The first execution under the new death penalty laws took place on January 17, 1977. Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah.
38 states and the federal government now have capital punishment laws.

The states that do not allow capital punishment are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

[dr.strangelove]

9. double post

[MnFats]

10. when the condemned is strapped on that gurney, or into ,,,,

,,,the electric chair, that individual is helpless to defend him/herself.
it is murder, even if sanctioned by a c0urt.
state-sanctioned murder is still murder.
I want no part of it.
fortunately my state has no death penalty though there are a couple of federal cases from Minnesota that could result in a death penalty.
if these cases end in the death penalty i'll be out there protesting for all i'm worth...

[Baltimoreboy]

12. It was long overdue for Oken

"Originally published June 18, 2004

After a furious legal battle that ended only in his final hour, Steven Howard Oken wrote a letter expressing remorse, smiled with a priest and submitted to his death by lethal injection last night for the 1987 rape and murder of a White Marsh newlywed."

"Oken was convicted in 1991 in the 1987 rape and murder of Garvin, whom he attacked after tricking her into letting him into her White Marsh apartment to use the phone. Two weeks later, he sexually assaulted and killed his wife's older sister, Patricia Antoinette Hirt, in White Marsh, and fled to Maine, where he sexually assaulted and killed a college student and motel clerk, Lori Elizabeth Ward."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/crime/bal-te.md.oken18jun18,0,1981233.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

He raped and murdered a newlywed. He sexually assaulted and murdered his sister-in-law and then he did the same to a college girl. He admitted his guilt and it still took 17 years to execute this animal.

[MnFats]

14. i think i understand how you feel but...

the degress of heinousness and cruelty of a given crime do not change my feelings.
i have covered murder trials and heard details too gruesome to report.
i have not, but i know several families that have lost a loved one to murder. still i feel capital punishment is murder.

ihave considered these things over many years -- it's still murder...

[Baltimoreboy]

17. It's not murder

Society has a right to protect itself from dangerous animals. That's what Oken was.

[mdmc]

13. even worse than owning a Hummer!

:~)
the biggest sin of all, the H2.

[VOX]

15. Not legally, if it's on the books. But state-sanctioned killing is...

a moral crime. It's more killing, it solves nothing, it does not bring anyone or anything back to life, it's not a deterrent, it's applied heavily on minorities (birth control after the fact), and it's costly.

IMO, it should be illegal, and yes, therefore a crime.

[Leprechan29]

16. State Powers

Capital Punishment, though I don't agree with it, especially with its current flaws, is not a crime - the state has the power over life, and has the power to take it away. Therefore, if due process is given to the accused, then it is not a crime. Just as killing in war is not a crime because the state has the a monopoly on killing, so is capital punishment not a crime.

[quinnox]

18. Should be

I am against it, and the United States is one of the only western major nations that still has it.

One thing I just thought of, I am also is favor of strict gun control and I think I have seen a link between these two issues before, those who support the gun rights are for capital punishment, those for gun control are against it. I wonder if there is a true correlation between these.. I am just thinking out loud, lol.