# What is with “100% no death penalty under any circumstances” type people???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-100-no-death-penalty-under-any-circumstances-type-people/262045>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [August 29, 2004, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-100-no-death-penalty-under-any-circumstances-type-people/262045 "2004-08-29T03:30:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 17

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**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-100-no-death-penalty-under-any-circumstances-type-people/262045/321 "2004-09-08T12:34:40Z")

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> [@Starving Artist](#):
>
> Yep. Just happily going through life, serving as a perfect example to all and sundry that you can rape, torture and kill – not to mention completely ruin the lives of the family members and loved ones of the person you raped, tortured and killed – and hey…just do a little time, get rehabilitated and you’ll be out mowing your lawn and taking the kiddies to Burger King before you know it.

Yep. One less criminal, one more productive member of society.

> [@](#):
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> Come on, man…get real.

You’re asking _me_ to get real?

> [@](#):
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> The world isn’t wired in such a way that happily returning a murderer to society as a steady family man is going to be a productive way to combat crime. It defies human nature.

Turning criminals into noncriminals isn’t a productive way to combat crime?

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**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-with-100-no-death-penalty-under-any-circumstances-type-people/262045/322 "2004-09-09T09:04:57Z")

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> [@Starving Artist](#):
>
> You must be pretty young. The “scary scenario” I described was both commonplace and common knowledge in this country from the late sixties/early seventies up to approximately the mid-nineties when harsher penalties against criminals began to be enacted.

The things that were common knowledge thirty years ago didn’t just vanish. If the events you mentioned really took place, why is there no record of them?

> [@](#):
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> Well, let me answer with a question of my own.

I’ll take that as “no, I don’t know anyone who’s been imprisoned, so I have no idea whether or not they go through life just as if nothing had happened”.

> [@](#):
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> Have you ever known anyone who had a family member raped or tortured or murdered (or maybe all three) and been around to see what their lives are like, and how they would feel if the person who did it was free and going about his business “as though it had never happened”?

Nope, I sure haven’t. Never made any claims about what their lives are like, either.

> [@](#):
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> (And when I refer to it being as though “nothing had happened,” I mean he is free to go where he wants to go, and do what he wants to do, and go freely through the remainder of his life…just as he would have had he not committed the murder.)

By that definition, the victim’s family can also go through life just as though “nothing had happened”. See how silly it is when you ignore all the lasting psychological effects?

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