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jno
Kromovaracun, you'd execute psychopaths? Psychopathy is a mental disorder, and that sort of thing has long been seen as a mitigating factor."
I think you're confusing the legal definition of insanity with the popular definition. To qualify for an insanity plea, you need to have a mental disorder of the kind which plainly demonstrates that you weren't fully aware of what you were doing. Read any definition of a psychopath and you'll find that this does not apply to them.
With regard to your first question - my answer is that I'm undecided, but I am sympathetic to the argument. This is because there is as yet no demonstrable way to cure or reform psychopaths who have become killers (and not all do). Such men are an unambiguous threat to public safety and, with the current state of knowledge of the condition, pretty hopeless cases when it comes to change. I think there's a strong case for executing them, yes. The reason I'm not wholly convinced by it is because of the case of Colin Stagg - almost certainly a genuine psychopath who nevertheless was pretty harmless and was innocent of the murder he was accused of. He would definitely have been executed under my system, which is something of a fatal flaw.
@ andy: I wholly agree.
@ AOG:
"Does that mean that the members of AnswerBank are not a fair representation of the rest of society?"
Yes, I think that's probably true. You're right to observe there's strong public support for (even limited) capital punishment. My response is that this fact, for reasons outlined above by myself and more eloquently by Andy, does not necessarily make it right.