Death penalty

[visitor]

That would be pertinant in the USA.

Here in the UK (as I point out every time we have a debate about the DP) we abolished the DP for precisely that reason - too many innocent people were getting hanged.

Since we abolished, it, there have been a large number of high-profile cases where people have been found not guilty of crimes such as murder after lengthy prison terms. People who would have swung years before had the DP still existed.

What other countries do is their business, but here in the UK the case for the reintroduction of the DP is weak. Unfortunately, it gets pushed by some of the tabloids so impressionable people are fooled into believing that there is groundswell of public opinion behind it.

 

[BobbyDon]

Stefan Kiszko would have hanged had he been convicted 5 years earlier

 

[bob02891]

The Guildford Four...the Birmingham Six...it's a bloody long list. Plod wants a result and he doesn't care if an innocent man swings.

(No offence Hannibal, obviously not all coppers are bent.)

The case of Derek Bentley was the last nail in the coffin of the DP in the UK. (Pardon the pun.) An educationally sub-normal young man with severe epilepsy, he was fitted up for a crime which he obviously didn't commit.

 

[BeakyBuzzard]

Was he the 'let him have it' kid.

 

[nemoi26]

That's the one: damn good film. I'd like to force all the Daily Heil readers to watch it - with their eyelids sewn open if necessary. And all the Scum readers too (although it would be a bit tedious having to keep stopping the film to explain it to them.)

 

[NancySpungen]

We studied that incident in Drama (random, I know) when I was at school.

Troy Davis might be their 'let him have it' kid. But probably not, it's not like having their children being massacred in school has motivated them to do anything about gun control.

 

[psycomathesaurus]

Many US states have abolished the death penalty. (I think one or two never had it, but I wouldn't swear to that.)

I suspect that the deep south would probably be the last place to repeal it - if they ever do. I think the death penalty and gun ownership is tied in with the legacy of being a slave-owning society in relatively recent history. That is inevitably going to take time to work out of their system.



PS: isn't it nice to be able to discuss the subject matter without a certain troll ******** all over the thread?

 

[ArielS]

******** isn't filtered? Fun time!

 

[EagleDancer]

I forgot it was outlawed - and now it turns out that it isn't!

I might try saying bum next!

 

[ohokaye]

I personally believe in the death penalty, not as a deterrent, just as a method of removing someone from the gene pool who has no right to live. We weren't there on the jury, no one on this forum has seen all the facts and information. The trial verdict has consistently been upheld in every court its been challenged in. The PR verdict has been won by the anti death penalty folks. Since I wasn't there, I have to trust that the judges who have reviewed the case time after time after time and have upheld the verdict, know more than we do.

And calling it a racist crime, how would you defend that in the face of this fact, since the DP was reintroduced in 1976, there have been 263 more WHITE prisoners put to death than blacks? If the penalty is so racially biased, how do you defend that statistic from the US Dept of Justice?

 

[Emssssssssss]

I wish that we could have the same faith in our legal system as you clearly have in yours.

From what US MAP members have said on previous threads of this kind, the key difference seems to be the appeals process. In the states you can spend 30 years on death row, until every appeal imaginable has been rejected. Over here You could do the same but be dead in two or three years. Then they find the missing evidence that proves you were innocent, hidden in a police station.

There are far more whites than blacks in the USA, so that figure on its own doesn't disprove anything.

 

[SamuelR]

It may have escaped the filter but it aint appreciated folks.

Mitch

 

[Ebbad]

Are we allowed to say 'defecating' instead?

 

[OPTICS]

No.

Only "poopy poopy plop plopping" is allowed. And then only in extremis.

Mitch

 

[Illyanne]

Blimey, that filter really IS broken, isn't it?

 

[caligal2010]

None taken

 

[gregoryscottfarrell]

The Jury heard testimony that has since been recanted. The Jury heard false information and based their verdict on those lies. Former Jury members have said that given what they know now, they wouldn't have passed a guilty verdict.

The judge at the evidentiary hearing effectively said 'You are guilty until proven innocent' - isn't that the exact opposite of how the US justice system is supposed to work.

The former head of the FBI has said that there are persistent doubts about the case.

If you are going to abdicate your own decision making process to the people in full possession of the facts, perhaps you should first find out what those people think.


Math fail. Normalise those numbers and the true picture emerges.

Also, in Geogia, blacks make up more than 50% of the total.