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*Pete* ^(Premo) · 03-29-2008, 09:55 AM

I believe the death penalty is neither right or wrong and it has its uses.

I used to be a strong proponent of the death penalty until the Timothy Mcveigh case. To me executing McVeigh was allowing him to escape. For what he did he deserved to sit in a cell for the 60 or so years until his death bored out of his melon. Killing him allowed him to escape the agony of solitary confinement. The agony of artificial light, stale air and crappy food. The agony of having no freedom to do anything.

Then there are those so sociopathic they should be put down like rabid dogs to prevent them from doing further harm to society. There IS a segment of our society, albeit small that are criminally insane and not only deserve death but death is for the good of our society to remove them.

The problem I have with the death penalty is centered chiefly on one thing; That our juries are made up by our "peers". I have very little confidence that the average American or even 12 average Americans are capable enough to put the CSI Miami reruns or preconceived notions out of their mind and use their cognitive thought process to determine guilt or innocence let alone determine death. Look at OJ, look at the huge civil liability payouts that juries have awarded that boggle the sane persons mind.

Sure their are appeals processes but they are strictly limited by law to procedures and judicial decisions and not finding of fact. Look at how many people have been cleared using DNA evidence after years of sitting in prison.

I have often thought of this forum as a microcosm of society as a whole. If you were accused of a capital crime and every member of this forum were in the jury pool how would you feel? Would you have a warm fuzzy looking over and seeing Nitwit, Toppic, or even me, depending on your opinion of me sitting in the jury box with the power to stick a needle in your arm?

I realize that there are some cases that are cut and dried and guilt is not even a question. But in those cases, and there are many, where cognitive thought, logical process is paramount for a correct verdict, there is no litmus test, there is very little screening to prevent 2/3rds of the jury box from being occupied by goobers who walk into the trial with the thought of "Kill the effer, I saw a case just like this on a Law & Order rerun on A&E while I was waiting for my $100 psychic reading email to come back from Ms. Cleo.

03-29-2008, 09:55 AM	#44 (permalink)
Pete ^(Premo) Simply magnificent Member Since: Jan 2003 Location: Hollywood Posts: 43,022	I believe the death penalty is neither right or wrong and it has its uses. I used to be a strong proponent of the death penalty until the Timothy Mcveigh case. To me executing McVeigh was allowing him to escape. For what he did he deserved to sit in a cell for the 60 or so years until his death bored out of his melon. Killing him allowed him to escape the agony of solitary confinement. The agony of artificial light, stale air and crappy food. The agony of having no freedom to do anything. Then there are those so sociopathic they should be put down like rabid dogs to prevent them from doing further harm to society. There IS a segment of our society, albeit small that are criminally insane and not only deserve death but death is for the good of our society to remove them. The problem I have with the death penalty is centered chiefly on one thing; That our juries are made up by our "peers". I have very little confidence that the average American or even 12 average Americans are capable enough to put the CSI Miami reruns or preconceived notions out of their mind and use their cognitive thought process to determine guilt or innocence let alone determine death. Look at OJ, look at the huge civil liability payouts that juries have awarded that boggle the sane persons mind. Sure their are appeals processes but they are strictly limited by law to procedures and judicial decisions and not finding of fact. Look at how many people have been cleared using DNA evidence after years of sitting in prison. I have often thought of this forum as a microcosm of society as a whole. If you were accused of a capital crime and every member of this forum were in the jury pool how would you feel? Would you have a warm fuzzy looking over and seeing Nitwit, Toppic, or even me, depending on your opinion of me sitting in the jury box with the power to stick a needle in your arm? I realize that there are some cases that are cut and dried and guilt is not even a question. But in those cases, and there are many, where cognitive thought, logical process is paramount for a correct verdict, there is no litmus test, there is very little screening to prevent 2/3rds of the jury box from being occupied by goobers who walk into the trial with the thought of "Kill the effer, I saw a case just like this on a Law & Order rerun on A&E while I was waiting for my $100 psychic reading email to come back from Ms. Cleo.
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