The death penalty is a barbaric practice and has no place in this day and age. I can’t tell you how many petitions I have written to stop the death of a blatant miscarry of justice…sometimes it works. A lot of the time it doesn’t Ehsan Fattahian was executed this week. He was a kurdish human rights activist and his sentence of excecution was passed illegally.
Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, are but a few of the countries that still practice the death penalty, we need to start speaking out in order to get it stopped completely. The petition doesn't always work but it's better than no action at all.
Have you ever read Camus' essay examining capital punishment? He covers most of the major points.
ReplyDeleteHi O..John Allen Muhammad was executed in the USA on Tuesday by lethal injection,he was one of the Washington Snipers.
ReplyDeleteI respect your efforts against capital punishment but surely a man who shoots 10 innocent people dead deserves to die.
nothingprofound
ReplyDeleteI haven't but am searching for an online PDF. If you have a link, most appreciated.
Hey Stan
I tell you when I first read that story, I would have completely agreed with you and there are killers that say it's best to keep them incarcerated because they profess that they will kill again. But is it right to take a life no matter how disturbed and violent that life may be? As I write this I am redressing that value. If someone killed my daughter, yes I would kill them but would it be right?
The law in this country would value my right to be an angry mother distraught with the loss and may reduce my crime to man slaughter but it would still see it as wrong. If someone was trying to kill me and I defended myself and killed them, I’d probably get done for manslaughter as well. Depends on the judge.
I feel we can and should deal with such violence differently, even if they are obviously a threat to society, killing him doesn’t make the crime he committed go away, would have been better to have know this defect at his birth and aborted him then.
Ahh and there is another subject is abortion wrong as well? That aside…
I don’t think the punishment can be justified….and the decision to come to such a conclusion is subjective and surely it shouldn’t be.
I wonder if the pro-capital punishment people accept the Utilitarian argument?
ReplyDeleteIf so, would they gladly allow themselves, or someone close, to be murdered by the state in a miscarriage of justice in order to preserve the institution (and perceived deterrence) of capital punishment?
If you're happy to hand this power to the state what *wouldn't* you hand over to it?
I believe that God provide the punishment.
ReplyDeleteHels,
ReplyDeleteParticularly you miss 1 main area.
An area Oleuanna covers in many blog posts and that of Africa.
Currently 17 of the African nation use capital punishment.
And indeed that of Sudan and Somalia are up there with that of the nations typically associated with it.
So Oleuanna,
A question here........why should we condem something that the mass population of another country clearly want????
Are you saying they are Wrong because they dont agree with you??
Surely thats how wars start.
Hey Hels yes i am more than aware of the amount of countries and there are more than just eight and I haven’t broached the argument of tribal justice that still have the death penalty within them. I am a member of a Amnesty so this blog was derived from one of their many news letters.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you mean by 'civilised' a term that has always baffled me? And I have to admit I felt sick when Saddam Hussein was hung. He was a murderous dictator that needed to be stopped but can’t help but think if Bush hadn’t felt threatened with the oil situation there and hadn’t gone to war Saddam would have still been alive. Does it sound strange that I think he was unlawfully killed?
Katabasis - I completely agree but seriously has it been shown to have actually deterred the crimes? If the action is an outcome all are happy and agreed upon why am I in the UK hearing about the distress of people in Sudan Iran and Iraq…how come I’m signing petitions? And I mean weekly? That doesn’t feel like a lot of people living happily with a flawed justice regime.
Ron - I don’t even know where to begin with that argument but I promise I will cover it in a later blog…I would love to hear you explain it fuller.
TLOTF - Now if I shot everyone who didn’t agree with my point of view I could fill up the UK alone but i'm not that arrogant and my names not Idi. Can you tell me one country whos citizens do not oppose the death penalty?
I don’t want to poke my nose into other countries and tell them how I think it should be run but if people seek help outside of their country because they feel they have no rights and fear for their lives, then I’m a humanitarian it’s what I do….
And by the way wars are started because people choose to pick up guns. Some wars just don’t need to be fought……especially by other intervention, personally I think that’s how wars are continued something that also doesn’t seem to be justified especially by some of these so called world leaders..…..
hi, i just came to visit your new post.
ReplyDeleteHD - Thank you for the compliment I am very flattered you like it. And yes (although I am smiling at your blatant advert) I will check your blog…we all need to travel eh?
ReplyDeleteReyah – thanks for popping by join in if you choose to return, you would be most welcome…
the video is very interesting. I think I agree with Stan and somewhat feel that you have a good point, I too would kill someone just because they took away a loved one. I would have to say that in this case not everyone dies and they do have a reason to kill that person but the sniper had no reason, but his own believes. he deserved it. BTW awesome blog :)
ReplyDeleteCide' - The use of the word 'deserved' is fuelled with anger and armed with deity rights. I personally feel when we are dictating who should live and who should die there is always the possibility we can get it wrong. And when it goes wrong, do those people ‘deserve’ to die as well for not doing their job properly? When does it stop?
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you...you are adding to the awesome so I appreciate your opinions.
I'm with you, 100% against the death penalty.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet... If I had committed a crime and was given this choice -- to spend the many years left of my miserable life in a small cell (perhaps with a nasty cellmate), OR to be put to sleep with an injection -- I'm afraid that it would be a no-brainer for me: I'd roll up my sleeve and say here, put me to sleep!
Hey Berowne - Yeah but as much as I don't want people to be put to death for the crimes they commit, you are not getting off that bloody easy....oh no.
ReplyDeleteAlthough that does present an interesting dilema...how would I feel about people having the choice to die after they are convicted and found with out resonable doubt, guilty? I have a feeling it could be open to all kinds of abuse as well or a rise in people killing themselves before they reach the courts.
Would free up space in prisons as well...
Voluntary euthanasia for criminals....scary thought!
Yes ... I've been working against the death penalty for more than 20 years and it is something that I think we will live to see abolished if not world-wide, then in the US.
ReplyDeleteI could go on and on about race, crime rates, innocence, deterrent - or lack thereof - cost etc, but it comes down to the fact that it is the gravest of human rights violations and is beneath us as a supposed civil society...
Couldn't agree more Harmon.....and I applaud your commitment.
ReplyDeleteIn America we try our very best to execute those guilty of crimes against their fellow man (e.g. Murder)In places like the Middle East people are executed for simply being differenet. If you are gay, you are hung. If you are a woman who has been raped, it is your fault and you will be stoned to death. If you are a woman who dares to socialize with another man who is not related to you. You will be stoned to death. In China the offense can be anything, as the chinese will do whatever it takes to keep order and keep up the appearance of a civil society. We are not barbaric, to categorize the current state of the death penalty in the US and how it is used rarely compared to that foreign countries is absurd. We kill murderers who kill in cold blood and admit it. When you take another life without just cause your life becomes forfeit and should be at the mercy of the victims family or the ruling authority of the place where you live. This is as it should be. Starting in the late 1960's judges and lawyers with too much compassion started down a path that led to the countries crime rate skyrocketing. Light sentences, weekend furlough programs, and other ideas meant to ease the burden on the criminal and appear more fair. Williw Horton who was serving a life sentence for murder was released on a 'weekend furlough' program by then governor Michael Dukakis. While on his leave he commited assault, armed robbery, and rape. To me the most offensive human rights violation is when the criminal is given more dispensation than the victim. What about the victims human rights?? And to touch on something else the author of this wonderful blog touched on Saddam Hussein. Yeah, he killed close to a million people. If he was violently raped by gorillas for ten years and had his gentials multilated by dull instruments while his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth were slowly cut away by a rusty razor his victims still would not have received justice.Exactly how many people need to die before someone is unfit to live?? Is there like an exact figure somewhere tucked away in the handbook of how seem socially consious on a global level while ignoring whatever crimes don't directly involve your tunneled belief system or the actions of George Bush(The Universal Scapegoat(c).)?
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. I don't agree with you on the death penalty though. Personally I feel that those who destroy lives such as child molesters, serial rapists, and war crimminals should be put down. But however I do respect you're opinion, I feel you have a great blog, and I'm thankful that we live in a society where people can state their opinons freely, great job and I'll be following this blog on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteSnake - open opinion is always valued....and as I follow you I am nothing but happy you want to listen to me as well.
ReplyDeleteBut as I said earlier on in this post....the person that kills my kid dies...
It's not right but it makes it right for me, in the emotive revengeful place. BUT and essentially this is the problem...What if I killed the wrong person?
Republikid
ReplyDeleteAs I said earlier....should Saddam have been killed? My problem is...if we as a society thinks killing is wrong...why do we then punish with death? Still wrong yes? Where is the congruency in the thinking?
Where is the learning? Where is the Discouragement? We KNOW this does not work...the mere fact I say I will kill anyone that kills my kid suggests this.
My absolute point is, people are killed under futile political or archaic (for want of a better word) reasons....despots, genocidal maniacs paedophiles should be killed?
Damn me for suggesting this but couldn't we learn more by keeping them alive?