Is it better that an innocent man is executed occassionally, pour encourager les autres, than that anarchy runs riot?

[sandyRoe]

http://www.dailymail....sity-researchers.html
.

[commoner]

Don't know Rowan..but is it preferable to a guilty man going free to kill again and again?

Tricky one :-(

[rowanwitch]

Oi.... you have got me muddled up with SandyRoe

I don't believe in execution... sorry... to say taking a life is wrong and then take another life to make things right doesn't work for me

[jno]

if you're going to be executed at random anyway, why not earn it by slaughtering your noisy neighbour first?

[jno]

sandyRowanwitch, an exciting new hybrid

[FredPuli43]

We ought to hang people for parking on double yellow lines. Many years ago, it was established that the typical murderer was not deterred by the death penalty; often the more 'balanced' ones committed suicide , a particular feature of domestic murders, and the rest didn't give it a thought.

However, the generally law abiding, the mass of the population, would deterred by draconian punishments for their own offences. A really severe penalty for the kind of offence that they might be tempted to commit would deter them. Hence the correct, but theoretical, proposition that the death penalty would work to stop illegal parking! (It would work to stop noisy neighbours, too)

By the way, the admiral whose execution gave rise to 'pour encourager les autres' was an unlucky man. The tribunal that found him guilty of dereliction of duty recommended mercy. But Byng was shot anyway, to encourage the others.

[doctordb]

How would you answer your question Sandy if you were the innocent man about to be executed?

[commoner]

lol...Sorry rowan...a little funny senior moment there....but you wouldn't let a guilty man loose on the general population...a murderer that is??

Mind you I think the real sandy is in a stirring mood today that's two posts today courting controversy.....Heh heh!

[joggerjayne]

No. Totally, absolutely, positively not.

No innocent person should EVER be punished, whether by execution, imprisonment or otherwise.

If that means that some guilty people slip through the net, then that means that we, as a society, must try harder.

Our failure to capture the Guilty does NOT justify wrongful punishment of the Innocent.

[Edger]

My father was interviewed about a murder which took place.
I think all the evidence was pointing at him.
The only problem was it was a Sunday and he remembered where he was as it was the only Sunday he worked in his life.
He was doing some repairs in a different police station and he had been filmed about 30 times and 4 police officers remembered him.

John

[sandyRoe]

Doctordb, to know the hour and time of ones death is a boon not granted to many. If I could be sure of having access to the Sacraments before the sentence was carried out I would go with a heavy, but not altogether reluctant, step to my doom.

[Ric.ror]

I wonder how many here are against the death penalty but in favour of abortion

[mike11111]

As Doctor Johnson said, with reference to the impending execution of the Rev Dr William Dodd for forgery in 1777, "Depend upon it, sir, for when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully".

[Davethedog]

Yes providing your not the innocent man, so lets rephrase that shall we:

Is it better that sandyRoe who has actualt committed no crime is executed, pour encourager les autres, than that anarchy runs riot?

[doctordb]

Sandy, you must be a man for all seasons, but isn't the execution of an innocent man just murder by another name?

[ronnietoon]

Edger
My father was interviewed about a murder which took place.
I think all the evidence was pointing at him.
The only problem was it was a Sunday and he remembered where he was as it was the only Sunday he worked in his life.
He was doing some repairs in a different police station and he had been filmed about 30 times and 4 police officers remembered him.


my dad was interviewed on 3 occasions regarding the yorkshire ripper case because he had a gap in his tooth.

saying that my mothers life was probably saved by over zealous coppers on her way home from work.

[paddywak]

Back in 1970 a friend of mine was interviewed several times in connection with the Barbara Mayo case. He was the spitting image of the photo-fit issued and he owned a grey Morris Traveler, similar to the one Barbara was last seen in. Fortunately he had the perfect alibi he was in Benidorm on his Honeymoon but the circumstantial could have been quite damming.

[jake-the-peg]

FALSE DICHOTOMY ALERT

Your question is obviously and deliberately biaised to the answer you want.

I might ask

Is it better that ban the Catholic Church rather than let Children continue to be abused?

Executing people does not stop Anarchy

You only have to look at the US to see that!

[jake-the-peg]

And your rather oblique reference to Voltaire in your question is somewhat ironic

He said:

The sword of justice is in our hands; but we ought to blunt it more often than sharpen it.

[Clanad]

Actually, jake, the State of Texas here has a very low rate of anarchy... in fact, last checked, none what so ever...

[jno]

maybe, Clanad...

http://www.meetup.com/trinityriveranarchists/