Anyone Feel Sorry For This Guy?

[The Rabbi]

For the first time in 47 years, Tennessee may use the electric chair to execute a death row inmate Wednesday morning.

The convicted killer, Daryl Keith Holton, has asked to die that way.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070910/NEWS03/709100391

[TGO David]

Nope.

[Guest EasilyObsessed]

I cant really feel sorry for anyone who would murder his three sons.

It is a shame that these people who obviously have serious mental issues dont get help before something like that happens.

[dunndw]

Feel sorry...only that he's still alive and taking up air

[molonlabetn]

I regret that anyone would get to the point of being capable of the evil this man carried out... it's a sad thing. However, I am not sad that appropriate justice will be carried out by the state, and by God thereafter. He made his choices, regardless of his motives or frame of mind at the time (which noone else can judge), and he should be held accountable for them. This seems appropriate to me, and apparently does to him as well, marked by his resignation to the fate which he has been judged to fulfil, and chosen to endure.

[creeky]

I will admit I did feel something when I read it on lunch... but it was just a little gas.

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So naw... nothing. I'm good.

[Urse]

Only sorry that we wasted so much money keeping him alive this long. I believe we should reinstitute hangings in the town square. That would be a pretty powerful violent crime deterrent .

[Guest Hornet Handler]

Why yes, yes I do.......... wait, nope it was gas too.

[Smith]

Funny how justice for a brutal murder is a quiet and painless shot in the arm these days. If only their victims had that luxury. Good to see someone do the right thing - Government and the guilty.

[The Rabbi]

Funny how justice for a brutal murder is a quiet and painless shot in the arm these days. If only their victims had that luxury. Good to see someone do the right thing - Government and the guilty.

Actually he's getting the chair, by his request.

[Guest Len]

Sorry that he's getting the chair? Nope, his choice.

Sorry that people this mentally ill don't get treatment they need till they endanger society and murder the innocent? Yep.

Sorry that it takes so long for the judicial wheels to grind along? Sure.

Sorry that we have state-sanctioned executions in the USA (just about the only non-Muslim 1st-world nation that does this), absolutely.

[The Rabbi]

Sorry that we have state-sanctioned executions in the USA (just about the only non-Muslim 1st-world nation that does this), absolutely.

Also just about the only 1st world nation that has a constitutionally-recognized right to own firearms. So what?

[dariks]

Sorry that we have state-sanctioned executions in the USA (just about the only non-Muslim 1st-world nation that does this), absolutely.

I don't believe that keeping them locked up for life is worth it. What kind of life can one have while in prison for the rest of your life? Since we have no effective means of reforming them I think it would be better to execute them and be done with it. In my opinion, caging someone up in a pen for the rest of their natural life is worse than torture.

I, for one, would probably go crazy if I was imprisoned for an extended period of time. Is that not torture?

[bteague2]

I love the fact that we have executions. I think they should be more public and more frequent. That would deter people alot more if they had seen someone get hung or shot against a brick wall. And this being on death row thing for years instead of days is ridiculous. When you get a speeding ticket you don't get years to pay it off...

[The Rabbi]

I don't believe that keeping them locked up for life is worth it. What kind of life can one have while in prison for the rest of your life? Since we have no effective means of reforming them I think it would be better to execute them and be done with it. In my opinion, caging someone up in a pen for the rest of their natural life is worse than torture.

I, for one, would probably go crazy if I was imprisoned for an extended period of time. Is that not torture?

That's why I'm not sorry when notorious criminals like Ramzi Yussuf and Omar Abdel Rachman draw life in supermax without parole. Dying in obscurity after years and years of pointless existence sounds like a pretty appropriate punishment. More so than making them martyrs by executing them.

[molonlabetn]

I don't think that executions should have to be state-sanctioned, or a cost burden on taxpayers... just so long as there's an effective mechanism for good people to eliminate evil from society, I'd support it privately and voluntarily.

Found guilty of a capitol offense? You are then handed over to volunteers who have 'bid' on your sentance-contract, whether they be people who choose to pay for your care to keep you alive in confinement... or people who choose to swiftly execute you. Neither choice would be involuntarily imposed or taxed on anyone other than the judged.

[Guest Mugster]

Actually, I do feel sorry for the guy. I'd hate to see anyone wind up in his shoes. Plus, he's a gulf war uno vet. If you went through that...you served, even if you were peeling potatoes.

I think we need the death penalty. Looks like it should be used in this case. I'm also glad i'm not the one pulling the switch.

[fury2neon]

I don't think that executions should have to be state-sanctioned, or a cost burden on taxpayers... just so long as there's an effective mechanism for good people to eliminate evil from society, I'd support it privately and voluntarily.

Found guilty of a capitol offense? You are then handed over to volunteers who have 'bid' on your sentance-contract, whether they be people who choose to pay for your care to keep you alive in confinement... or people who choose to swiftly execute you. Neither choice would be involuntarily imposed or taxed on anyone other than the judged.

Not a bad idea, it could run into cruel and unusual punishment problems in the court system though, depending on who got the contract.

[Guest Len]

This would still be state-sanctioned, just not state-operated. There would have to be a legal mechanism in place to operate such a system, and that mechanism would be designed and passed by a legislative body, thus effectively having a state sanction. This system would then not pass my muster, even though it is an interesting and creative approach.

I don't think that executions should have to be state-sanctioned, or a cost burden on taxpayers... just so long as there's an effective mechanism for good people to eliminate evil from society, I'd support it privately and voluntarily.

Found guilty of a capitol offense? You are then handed over to volunteers who have 'bid' on your sentance-contract, whether they be people who choose to pay for your care to keep you alive in confinement... or people who choose to swiftly execute you. Neither choice would be involuntarily imposed or taxed on anyone other than the judged.

[Guest Len]

So what? So everything. We are behaving in a fashion similar to our enemies. Not exactly the company I want to keep. Second, the state should not be in the business of taking life. It serves no purpose but vengance.

Until humanity gets over this casual attitude about taking life, we wont be going anywhere as a race. If we are to value human life, we can't take away, especially in the capricious manner our system does it. (Black, you die, white you live. Rich you live, poor you die.)

Finally, the church I grew up in (Catholic) teaches no killing. Period. No abortions, no murders, no capital punishment. Do these things and you are going down. If I am to follow the teachings of Jesus as my church interprets them, I must oppose capital punishment.

Also just about the only 1st world nation that has a constitutionally-recognized right to own firearms. So what?

[fury2neon]

...especially in the capricious manner our system does it. (Black, you die, white you live. Rich you live, poor you die.)

If I remember right there are more white males executed, but more black males locked up.

[Im Neero]

So what? So everything. We are behaving in a fashion similar to our enemies. Not exactly the company I want to keep. Second, the state should not be in the business of taking life. It serves no purpose but vengance.

The concept of public education is in the Communist Manifesto. The idea of strong protected borders was a huge part of Hitler's plan. Iran pumps oil from the ground.Just because our enemies do something, that doesn't make it wrong.

I do not believe in executions as revenge. I do believe in executions as punishment. It is culling the herd. If you choose to violate societies most sacrosanct precepts, you also forgo any protection afforded by society and forefeit your right to exist in said society. I do not believe that one who does these things should be a burden upon society, so I do not believe that prison is a good solution. This leaves two options, banishment from society and death.

I would be perfectly happy if we could exil anyone guilty of a capital offense to an island with no way off. There they could form their own society with their own rules. Unfortunately this is not an implementable solution since I doubt any sovereign nation will be willing to part with territory to create this prison colony. The British did it with Australia, the Russians did it with Siberia, but I do not think it could work today.

This only leaves one solution to the problem of how to eliminate someone from society. In a perfect world it would not be necessary, but that is not the world we live in. If there is a problem with my view, feel free to point it out, I am very open minded.

[bteague2]

Len, the Catholic church does allow capital punishment if there is not an alternative. Like in 3rd world countries, that don't have a prison large enough to hold all of them or a prison in general.

[Guest GregRN]

It serves no purpose but vengance.

That's not entirely true. It prevents that one person from doing it again. I wouldn't support the death penalty for a person that was, positively, no further threat to anyone in society, but there are very few that could ever meet that criteria.

If I am to follow the teachings of Jesus as my church interprets them, I must oppose capital punishment.

Try out Numbers 35:16-19. Especially verse 19:" The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him."

I agree, let the families do it instead of the state (legally, and therefore sanctioned).

[The Rabbi]

So what? So everything. We are behaving in a fashion similar to our enemies. Not exactly the company I want to keep. Second, the state should not be in the business of taking life. It serves no purpose but vengance.

Yeah, but why should we care what France does??

Oh, you mean al Qaeda et al? Do "our enemies" have a trial by jury system? Do they have a standard of guilt beyond the shadow of a doubt? Do they have elaborate sentencing guidelines? Do they have extended appeals processes? No, they do not. So there is no similarity.

Until humanity gets over this casual attitude about taking life, we wont be going anywhere as a race. If we are to value human life, we can't take away, especially in the capricious manner our system does it. (Black, you die, white you live. Rich you live, poor you die.)

I don't know "where we are going as a race." I dont understand what that means. If we value human life truly then we realize the enormity of murder and punish accordingly.

As for playing the race card on this one, it doesn't fly.

Finally, the church I grew up in (Catholic) teaches no killing. Period. No abortions, no murders, no capital punishment. Do these things and you are going down. If I am to follow the teachings of Jesus as my church interprets them, I must oppose capital punishment.

Then that would include all self-defense as well. Killing is killing regardless of circumstance. I have no problem with someone who says his religion forbids killing and therefore he will not defend himself. But I find it odd exceedingly to see this attitude in a gun forum by someone who trains people to do exactly that. It seems somehow inconsistent.