I don’t want to sidetrack my own thread with discussion of the “Boston Marathon Bomber”, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but it’s news from that trial that’s got me thinking about this.
Summary: Tsarnaev’s Defense Team’s strategy is not to avoid a conviction, but to avoid the Death Penalty. They began proceedings yesterday by acknowledging “He did it” and are focusing on trying to secure a “lesser” sentence, most likely life without parole.
So, what do you think, fellow Dopers? Which is worse: life in prison with no chance of parole, or the death penalty?
I would prefer life without parole. When I die, that’s it. There is nothing after that (IMO). Thinking about it too long, or too often, scares the shit out of me. I’ll take life any day.
So much this. People have a very strong urge to live no matter how bad their life sucks. When you think about some of histories most evil prison camps like say “Devils Island” or North Korea’s prisons, you’d think more people would just off themselves to save them so much misery, but they don’t because their will to live is so strong.
Dead is just dead. Life in prison without parole is just ongoing torture to me. Or a green card to do whatever the Hell you want to everyone else. Either way its just long drawn-out suffering.
I’d prefer having my own cell on death row for a few years than living in the general population. US prisons are a nightmare. If you are never getting out, better to spend what remaining time not mingling with the felons.
Worse for whom? Am I to put myself in the prisoner’s situation and tell you which sentence I’d rather receive? Or which do I think is the more callous or more harsh way for us as a society to treat convicted murderers and whatnot? Am I allowed to separate out abstractions from the realities of how some of these things play out in real life?
• I think it is cruel to cage anyone long-term and not give them the option of suicide / receiving capital punishment instead of having to live in the people-cage.
• I think the persistent agonized focus on capital punishment is downright EVIL insofar as it draws attention away from how horrible it is to lock people up in cages for years and years of their lives
• If it were me, and I had reason to believe that “life in prison w/o parole” was really and truly going to mean “you spend your life in prison” — not that there’s some greater-than-marginal chance that no matter what sentence is pronounced I’ll still probably get paroled, also omitting any likely shot at getting my conviction or sentence overturned on appeal or something — I’d rather be put down. I say that knowing that as the moment of execution got imminently near, survival instincts would kick in and make it very difficult for me to not wish to survive longer no matter what.
• If it were me and I thought maybe I could escape or maybe my attorney will win on appeal or maybe the political climate will change and folks sentenced to life without parole will get a break, I’d want to delay, see how long I can tolerate imprisonment while hope is reasonable, but I’d still want the option of saying Fuckit, kill me now
• Let’s examine the details of this capital punishment. I don’t think the existing forms of it are anywhere near as humane as they could be. I’d like to be medicated to replace anxiety with numbness then rendered fully unconscious, painlessly, then have my bodily functions stopped without me having to experience that happening. Maybe a gradually increasing morphine drip culminating in cessation of respiration. There are a lot of ways of executing someone that are spectacularly painful and cruel, especially in the distant past (drawing and quartering comes to mind). Our current prevailing methods aren’t horrible on THAT scale but they’re still nasty enough to make me want to commit suicide my own way rather than climb onto the lethan injection cot or step into the gas chamber.
Life in prison is life, not a great one, but actually better than some. You have food, shelter, and some form of entertainment. With a chance (slim) of escape, commuting sentence, crazy Governors, etc. it may not be life in prison after all.
There is nothing intrinsically sacred, special or thrilling about life. You get a few dozen years as a vital adult before you start to deteriorate and decay. Life is a struggle at best!
And that is on the outside of prison.
Inside? With a life sentence? I couldn’t imagine that torture. Off me now please
As someone who last year killed all of his social media and electronic entertainments (video games, cable TV, etc.) so that he could get…oh, 85% of the way through the first draft of a REALLY GOOD NOVEL…I agree with him. :mad:
I don’t care if it’s better or worse, I only care that it’s just. IMO, the death penalty is more just for someone convicted of murder than a life sentence. Murderers should only get life if there are extenuating circumstance or they’ve plead down, spared the victims families a circus trial, etc.
This. I don’t really get why we consider human life SO freaking sacred. Just humans, mind you. Everything else can pretty much fuck off and die.
Most people would say that keeping a dog in a cage it’s whole life is cruel, even if it’s well fed and gets an hour outside of the cage every day. Most would say the dog would be better off put to sleep. And yet human life must be preserved at all cost, for some reason, even if it’s a really shitty life, and the person who owns it wishes to die. Strange.
