# Will the death penalty ever go extinct? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 19, 2014, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720 "2014-05-19T08:29:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/41 "2014-05-20T00:31:09Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > I am too. And if sentencing a teenager to death and then waiting 25 years to kill the middle aged man is not a cruel and unusual punishment I don’t know what is… Executing an innocent middle aged man because it’s easier than admitting he’s innocent? ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/42 "2014-05-20T00:52:46Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Executing an innocent middle aged man because it’s easier than admitting he’s innocent? That wasn’t my intended point, although that could well be true in some cases. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/43 "2014-05-20T04:27:45Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > I’d have to disagree with that. The Birmingham Six were convicted largely on the “expert” evidence of Dr. Frank Skuse, who was later found to have miscalculated the finger swabs by a factor of 10, which led the jury to believe they had handled nitro-glycerine rather than a brand new pack of playing cards. The judge in the trial said at sentencing words to the effect of: “If there was crime that deserved capital punishment, this is it.” > > . That’s the point. The test had critics in the 70’s already and there was little corroborating evidence. In a death penalty case both of these would have been a factor. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/44 "2014-05-20T07:04:56Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I say we offer definitions for _“effete”_ or _“decadent”_ as the standard for judging cultures that went too far past _“barbaric”_. Y’know, so long as we’re name-calling. It’s a judgement call so feel free to do so. There is no objective standard so we have to find words for the strong feelings we have. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/45 "2014-05-21T02:11:53Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > That’s the point. The test had critics in the 70’s already and there was little corroborating evidence. In a death penalty case both of these would have been a factor. As far I can ascertain, the only corroborating evidence was that they were Catholics from Northern Ireland and five of them were on a train from Birmingham to get a ferry for Belfast. The fact that they were going going there to attend the funeral of an IRA member who had been killed by his own bomb in Coventry wouldn’t have helped their cause. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this matter as there is no way of knowing if the possibility of the death penalty would have any effect on the jury and judge. Personally, I don’t think so. Given the judge’s remarks in his summing up and the mood of the country in general at that time, I believe they would have been executed if the law had permitted it at that time. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/46 "2014-05-22T21:37:31Z")
I can think of one argument for the death penalty. If an imprisoned person is a member of an organization that is likely to kidnap people in order to arrange a prisoner exchange (think Boko Haram), then I would rather seem him/her executed. Otherwise, I think a society that executes people is likely to have more murders than fewer, although it is hard to disentangle cause and effect. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/47 "2014-05-24T00:51:53Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Because it’s pointless and always implemented unjustly. Overwhelmingly, it’s race and gender and how much money the accused has and who the supposed victim is that determine whether someone gets the death penalty, not what they’ve done. What about countries such as Japan where the population is more or less homogeneous? > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Well it seems like only 20% of the world’s countries have the death penalty as an option and have been willing to use it in the last 10 years. > > So 80% at least are avoiding it. That’s a good sign in my book. > > And yes, a country that kills it’s own citizens cannot be seen as fully civilised. That’s my view and I’m happy to stand by it. I’m opposed to the death penalty in most cases for pragmatic reasons (possibility of innocence, potential inequalities in application, and costs) but I see little point in keeping someone like Jared Lee Loughner or Anders Behring Breivik alive when their guilty is utterly certain. The death penalty is a display of the power of the State to render necessary Justice for truly heinous crimes. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/48 "2014-05-24T01:44:35Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > What about countries such as Japan where the population is more or less homogeneous? The Japanese system is particularly “Cruel and Unusual”. Inmates can be on death row for 20-30 years, and on any given day in that period they can be informed in the morning that they will be executed the same day. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/49 "2014-05-24T16:15:41Z")
The death penalty is just that, a penalty. Suicide is an option and with a little assistance from a jailer throwing a belt in your cell the inmate gets the idea real quick. We should save the American taxpayer money by shipping the guilty offenders of the worst kind down to an unnamed island in the Caribbean that even the guards leave during a hurricane and let them live out there lives mercifully for as long they should have left to live. Which probably won’t be for as long the would’ve lived in a US Federal detention center. Good riddance I say … no cameras unless you make it a reality show to pay for the whole operation. Yeah I like that a reality show, online only for the depraved people that would like to watch prison riots on a small island. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720/50 "2014-05-25T01:55:10Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > …Good riddance I say … no cameras unless you make it a reality show to pay for the whole operation. > > Yeah I like that a reality show, online only for the depraved people that would like to watch prison riots on a small island. _I’m a mass murderer, get me out of here…_? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-the-death-penalty-ever-go-extinct/688720.md?page=2)