This, and I said it years ago.
I would shed no tears though, were he to die at his own hand, or sudden ricin poisoning.
Being fully opposed to the death penalty, the question is moot.
I’d like to hear from those who are generally opposed but think he deserves to be executed. Am I missing something?
I’m against the death penalty. As for incitement, it is a subjective charge. What if someone were to play around with the phrase off the police? Want them thrown in prison? Maybe somebody might say that we should mostly punish punching down incitement, not punching up. I say — one legal standard is the ideal, and it is too hard to distinguish incitement from strong speech.
There’s a point where incitement might cross over into an actual conspiracy to kill an individual, but I don’t think Trump got there.
I think that DJT threatening election officials, on tape, is a more clear cut violation of law. Georgia should seek his extradition.
I’m opposed to the death penalty period, so I don’t believe Trump should receive the death penalty. I think he should be locked up in a standard State Pen, treated in the same manner as the rest of the inmates, with the exception that at lights out his cell is to be opened every 15 minutes so he can be punched in the face.
Generally against, and would not execute Trump.
Since he seems such a fan of coal, make him mine it – with a plastic spork.
Brian
I generally oppose the death penalty, but there are a few exceptions. This isn’t one of them.
I opposed it for Charles Manson, so I pretty much have to oppose it for this lesser monster.
…so far. (But really, aren’t they about equal at this point?)
I do want to see him convicted of treason, and treason can carry a death penalty. But I don’t support the death penalty, not even for treason.
No. But OTOH if Interpol takes him to Iran and the inevitable occurs, I wont stay up nites crying about it either.
Well, if he goes full-bore Ceausescu or Putin…maybe. Fortunately, I think American fascism has just hit, and is receding from, a (local) high water mark. This specific tide has turned.
Future tides may flow again…
I’m surprised as well. When I created this poll, I thought that there’d be zero people choosing option 2.
Shouldn’t be too surprising. My WAG would be that most people who support the death penalty support it for crimes that involve directly causing the death of someone else - i.e., first-degree murder.
The deaths that Trump has caused are indirect - such as inciting his supporters at the Capitol, or his botched handling of the pandemic which has steeply increased American deaths. If we were to execute someone for that, then suddenly we’d have to execute a whole lot more people in America than before; a real can of worms. Anti-vaxxers could be put to death for indirectly causing the deaths of un-vaccinated children.
I don’t think that’s the option they’re asking about. Discourse changes the order, depending on the voting.
I think they’re wondering about people opposed to the DP but think it makes sense in this case.
I’m not one of those people, but how’s this for why: One could be opposed to the DP in general, and especially the awful way it’s done in the US – terrible defenses for poor people, some racist methods, etc. Plus, a murderer, even a serial murderer, only kills some smallish number of people. However, trying to overturn the American democracy and inciting an attempted coup is a much larger crime than any particular set of murders. Plus, if the US were to become the autocratic state that Trump was pushing for, it could lead to much more death and destruction. Also, it’s perfectly clear what happened, whereas many capital crimes are done in the dark and you can never be definitely sure about guilt. In this case, there is tons of video evidence.
Anyway, that’s not my position, but it doesn’t seem completely unreasonable to me.
Let me go on the record as saying Trump’s crimes are just as bad and deserve equal punishment. My objection is to the death penalty, not that Trump’s crimes aren’t equivalent to those of criminals who have received the death penalty.
Personally, I’d like to see him be rendered utterly irrelevant. Fined enough to not be “rich”, no access to Twitter or other social media platforms, and basically being a pariah to any actual reputable network or cable channel. He’d be stuck on whatever garbage right wing sites/networks are willing to have him, but nobody else would give him any air time or mention, except maybe when he croaks.
That’s far worse than being dead for him I suspect.
I oppose the death penalty, and I really can’t think of any exceptions. So no. But even if I could think of exceptions, no.
No, I am totally opposed. I think he should spend the rest of his life in a padded cell.
Nope, I’m sorry but no. He needs to live to know he failed.
However, AFAIK none of what he is known to have done in pursuit of this subversion has been previously defined explicitly by law as a capital crime and I am not going to apply it ex post facto – mind you, corrections welcomed, if based on actual cites of law and not on “but that’s how it should be”.