This question is only for the pro death sentence people, for obvious reasons.
If given the chance, would you actually pull the switch-inject the chemicals-trip the trap door, etc? Regardless of the circumstances of the crime or relationship of the criminal to you? A lot of people have stated in other death penalty threads that they would, and I was wondering if it was just anger, or bluster behind these statements. At least one stated, in the thread about the murderer who killed 100 children, that he would strangle the man himself. That’s pretty heavy.
Please, there are plenty of threads in which to debate the death penalty. I’m wondering how many would actually do the act in person. For real. So think about it before you answer. And feel free to discuss what it is that you think makes doing this morally any different from what the murderer did.
Peace,
mangeorge
This is actually a very good question. But not for General Questions, which is for questions for which a factual answer might actually be available.
I’d send it to Great Debates, but it would just turn into another death penalty debate.
I think the MPSIMers and visitors to that forum will have some very good imput here.
If I’m right, I just weigh in myself on this subject tomorrow afternoon.
Euty! Incoming!
Change Your Password, Please and don’t use HTML, as it has been disabled, but you can learn about superscripts here
Yes I could. And I explain my resonings in the dp thread in GD. Here is the link. http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/001529.html
And can someone tell me how to post a link where just the word “link” or “here” or whatever turns blue and provides the link? Please?
Cecil said it. I believe it. That settles it.
Oh hell yes I could “flip the switch”. Not having actually done it, I cant say for sure how I would feel, but I would imigian it wouldnt bother me. My personal feeling is that if a jury can find it in their own hearts to sentence a man (or woman) to death, then there is no doubt in their mind that he, or she, committed the crime. In that case, that person is waisting my oxygen and eating food that could be used for better purposes. Premeditating someone elses murder should get you killed. There are somethings that are totally unacceptable, and the people who perform these tasks need to be delt with, swiftly and harshly.
of course I have been accused of being a heartless bit…er, I mean smurf
Kinooning it up for 20 years and counting
Yeah, I think I could fry the fucker. Especially if I thought about how the worthless sack of shit is livin’ it up on the state tit and thusly on my hard earned tax dollars. That’s bullshit.
Weird dave-click on the
“UBB Code is on” link the next time you reply. That’ll help.
Or, you can do it now by clicking here now!
nyahhh!
I may not be the best one to answer this, as for some reason, all my links turn out gray. But they work as good as if they were blue, so what the hell?
“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”
I hesitate to say I’m a ‘death penalty advocate’, but at the same time, I don’t want to see it done away with either (pardon the pun).
I could, without hesitation, inject people like Wesley Allen Dodd, Ted Bundy, Danny Rollings, John Wayne Gacy, or Richard Davis. They are/were cold blooded killers that loved killing and would have continued if they weren’t stopped. They deserve the death penalty. They have no business breathing the same air as those shattered families they have devastated with their own depravity.
I have no sympathy for them, and wouldn’t shed a tear over their deaths. I wonder instead at the concern they seem to provoke. We kill animals that have killed humans, and they don’t even know better, but they are still put down. This isn’t any different.
Someone in another thread claimed that killers are just ‘sick’. I don’t believe they are, I think they are evil, whatever got twisted inside, they enjoy what they do and care not one whit about those they have hurt. Keep them in jail forever?? Yeah, and they can keep coming up for parole, causing THAT much more suffering on those families. I’ll save my sympathy for those that deserve it.
“Honestly now, Chaplain, you wouldn’t want your sister to marry an enlisted man, would you?”
“My sister IS an enlisted man, sir” the chaplain replied.
The murderer acts to destroy society.
Were I to “flip the switch,” “swing the axe” or whatever you want to call it; I would be acting to preserve society and protect the innocent.
I really wouldn’t have a problem “getting my hands bloody” by performing the act, and I would sleep well at night.
–Kalél
TheHungerSite.com
“If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.”
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
I have to agree with Enigma on this one. It’s like Heinlien said in Starship Troopers, (quoting from memory), “I don’t know if the fellow was ‘sick’ and couldn’t help it, I don’t know if he could be ‘cured’ or imprisoned indefinitely. I do know he won’t be killing any more little girls.”
Yeah, I could pull the lever, flip the switch, whatever. It would probaby bother me for a while, but I’d get over it.
What do you want for Christmas, Crow? I want to decide who lives and who dies!
Why not let the condemned man “do it himself”?In medieval bavaria, a man convicted of a capital crime was imprisoned in a high tower. He was fed on bread and water-there were no bars on the windows-eventually he got sick of it and jumped!
Seems like humane way to do it.
Yes I would. And take my kids out to Chuck E Cheeses right after the fuckers fry.
…send lawyers, guns, and money…
Warren ZevonNone of you are worried about the numbers of people on death row, convicted before DNA evidence came along, and now positively exonerated by DNA? That doesn’t shake your faith that maybe, just maybe, some of these verdicts are unreliable?
Probably more of a GD question… sigh.
- Rick
I had taken it for granted that the question was posed as if all reasonable doubt had been eliminated. Even so, I don’t believe I could do it unless it was a very personal matter of revenge.
Yes. For all the reasons already stated.
I’m one of the most non-violent people you’ll ever meet, but some people do just need killin’, and I’d flip the switch or pull the trigger or inject the SOB with NO qualms, in such cases.
StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
{{{None of you are worried about the numbers of people on death row, convicted before DNA evidence came along, and now positively exonerated by DNA?}}}—Bricker
Not that it would make any difference to my stand, but I haven’t seen figures on this. Do you have any citations (figures and sources) for this?
–Kalél
TheHungerSite.com
“If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.”
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court
Well, I’m inclined to say that Bricker is a cite in and of himself.
But I think that I would want to know that a guy was guilty, guilty, guilty, beyond a shadow of a doubt before I offed him.
Otherwise, I might lose some sleep wondering if I killed an innocent man.
So, assuming that I researched the case and I knew that the guy was a rat, I’d flip the switch.
“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”
Tragedy happens Rick, and innocents die. Tens of millions of innocents have died in wars, and have barely rated a footnote in history. The deaths of innocents is always a cause for hand-wringing and soul searching, regardless of whether one or thousands have been sacrificed. We console ourselves with the rationale that the death of innocents is the price of an imprecise and imperfect system of judgment, and with the knowledge that perfection in human judgment is unattainable. The best each of us can do is examine our motives for killing, and satisfy ourselves that our actions are not purely selfish.
I would as readily murder a convicted killer in peacetime as I have murdered suspected and potential killers in war. The notion of God is our refuge in trying to create civilization, and we pray fervently for the salvation of all murdered souls, if only to seek forgiveness for the mistakes we will inevitably make.
I am not a religious man, but I have killed because I believed it was just and necessary, and without the precaution of a lengthy examination of the individual lives taken. Once an individual is given the benefit of such an examination, and is found to stand guilty of an offense against society which society has judged to be punishable by death, I would pull the trigger without a moment’s hesitation.
Might I be making a mistake? Undoubtedly. Might I feel shattered by guilt upon discovering the mistake? Absolutely. Will this knowledge stay my hand the next time? Absolutely not.
Dr. Watson
“One to destroy, is murder by the law;
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands, takes a specious name,
War’s glorious art, and gives immortal fame.”
– Edward Young
I would cry. I would cry because I would be ending utterly the chance that that person could ever be a true member of society. I would cry because by pulling the switch I would eliminate the possibility that he would produce any beauty in this world. I would cry because death is a sad thing to me. But I would pull the trigger, the lever, flip the switch, twist the garrot, and push the syringe, because it had been deemed necessary to the safety of all that that person cease to be.
I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.
I would not hesitate to flip the switch. I am a firm believer of the death penalty. We have too many criminals sitting on death row as it is. IMHO I think we should go back to public hangings. Send the thugs a message that if they committ a violent crime they aren’t going to sit in a cell watching t.v., getting a college education, exercising in the courtyard, eating three meals a day and living on the hard earned tax dollars of the decent American working people. They’re going to pay the ultimate price for their wrong doings. I bet it would cut down on a lot of the crime.
That John Denver’s full of shit man!
Yes, but this is a silly question.
I find the process distasteful, and therefore don’t apply for the executioners job. If under some situation it was necessary, I would do it.
Preferring not to do the task has no connection to the implied question, “is it right or wrong”. There are plenty of other jobs that are repulsive to me, such as butchering animals or collecting garbage. But I still eat meat and generate trash. If times called for it, I could do the job, but prefer not to.
Yes,I would push the button. Not that I would find it fun. Some people are going to be dangerous to others until the day they die.
You killed Kenny! You bastards!
Don’t try to engage my enthusiasm, I haven’t got any. Just tell me what you want.