Death by Firing Squad Law Passed

If we had a 'like' button I would have used it a lot on this thread.

I'm another gransnetter who is opposed to the death penalty. I'm also glad I wasn't born and don't live, in the USA. Their treatment of prisoners is barbaric. So far as I can see, all prisoners are shackled at the ankle and wrists for legal visits etc.

I find the American religious right to be a scary bunch of people. Shooting doctors who perform abortions, seeing universal health care as some kind of socialist/communist plot, not accepting that some people are born heterosexual and others may be gay or lesbian - this list just goes on. They seem stuck in "an eye for an eye", rather than a more liberal interpretation of their Christian faith. Dreadful

This from a country which wants to impose their form of democracy on the world.

I don't think the people convicted of these heinous crimes should ever be released but I don't agree with capital punishment.

I'm ambivalent I'm afraid, if the alternative is incarceration the rest of your life. It doesn't seem to have any impact on gun crime etc so clearly isn't a deterrent.
The religious fanatics are, I agree, very disturbing and that they seem to use religion as an excuse for unwarranted violence, just like many other religions sects seems insurmountable.
The world's a scary place.

I read the link nelliemoser and the statistics about funding of private prisons are a scary business model. Thank you for finding this and bringing it to attention, I shall follow this FB group.

There have been several scandals in the US involving private youth detention centres.

More recently, two county court judges were found guilty of taking $2.1 million in kickbacks from the builder of two for-profit youth detention centres. It was known as the "kids for cash" scandal.

The judges were handing out youth detention sentences for minor offences. For instance, a 14 year old boy who had stolen change from unlocked cars was sentenced to youth detention.

I wish there was more coverage here of these scandals. Then people in Britain might be more concerned about the path this government is taking in pushing ahead with their programme of privatisation.

Your all so 'nice'. I would have no problem at all putting to death anyone who committed some of the heinous crimes we read about.
That would only be, if, I could trust the Police, but I can't.
And before anyone asks: yes, I could do it.

I am at a loss to know why, if vets can put down large animals humanely the same cannot be done for humans. Veterinary drugs must be available in the USA.

So only the police are responsible for miscarriages of justice? I don't think so!

I'm not nice, I would put them in a cold bare cell with subsistence rations and no privileges.
But if there had been a miscarriage of justice, they could still be freed.

I don't think judicial killing is ever justifiable and find the public – albeit limited public – nature of executions in the USA stomach churning. In addition, the American legal system is often lax: there are more than a few instances of court appointed defense attorneys being drunk, judges sleeping through trials, evidence deliberately concealed and other equally appalling failures in capital trials which have resulted in a death penalty and refusal to allow appeals. Some years ago an attorney, in Georgia I think, though I'm not sure, ran a project with his senior students to investigate the cases of the convicted prisoners currently awaiting execution. So many were found to have had mistrials for a wide variety of reasons that the state suspended the law that allowed execution.

If the death penalty is a deterrent how come there are murders

I don't think it is a deterrent, but if I were determined to murder someone, I would feel happier about a nice syringe sending me to death, than a firing squad.

I agree with the death penalty for First Degree Murder (premeditated). I think the victims family should have a say in how the punishment is carried out.

Lee Rigby's murderers come to mind.

@magpie123 Now you are introducing revenge into the equation, which is a horrifying thought. The last people who could be trusted to give a fair assessment would be the family of a victim. And we know it is done in some Muslim countries - which is no recommendation.

I agree feetle revenge would be awful. I just can't accept that one person taking the life of another can be right under any circumstances.

Nor I.

Although I wish 'Life' were exactly that. For someone to be given Life at 30, and to have them out at 60, or even far younger sometimes, seems very wrong.

Yes, I want them alive just in case there was a miscarriage of justice, as well as because I don't believe in killing people, which makes us just as bad as them.

GrannyTwice. I'm obviously missing something. If the Police are not responsible for miscarriages of justice, who is?
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
The Police gather the evidence to present to the CPS, who then decide whether there is enough evidence to secure a proscecution.
We all know there are some dubious Defence Lawyers but it is the Police who collect the evidence. Please tell me if I'm wrong.

Killing for revenge. I come from a place of not killing these people for revenge, but believing there are evil people in this world and I see no reason for them to live.

Petra, a miscarriage of justice can arise from a stupid jury, incompetent counsel, a biased judge, mistakes in the CPS, or incompetent or corrupt police. Or fresh evidence may come to light after conviction. If the convicted person has already been executed nothing can be done to put things right.

In the early Sixties Penguin published two books, Hanged In Error and Hanged By The Neck, at the time of the big debates on capital punishment here. The second set out the reasoned arguments of principle against capital punishment; the first gave examples of the wrong person being executed. I found Hanged In Error the more convincing of the two, although I was and am anti cp on all the other grounds as well.

Good post Grumppa. Of course there are potentially multiple players in a miscarriage of justice case. Whilst the Guildford 4 and Birminghsm 6 were terrible examples, I find the Stefan Kiszko case heartbreaking - 16 years in prison for a murder he could never have committed, a useless inept defence, police failing to disclose. He was beaten up in prison many times and no one cared. He died shortly after been released and his poor mother died 4 months after him. The sister of the murdered child went to his funeral but her poor family had to wait many more years to see justice done. So a miscarriage of justice hurts not only the wrongly accused and thrir families but the victims families who may never see a true conviction

So yes Petra you are clearly missing something -I'd say it was a knowledge of how the criminal justice system works - or rather sometimes doesn't

Many years ago I read "The Executioners Song" by Norman Mailer. It concerns the trial, imprisonment and execution of Gary Gilmore, who was accused of (and confessed to) some horrendous murders.

The book is gripping, Gilmore was sentenced to death in a state where it was very rarely actually carried out, and centres around Gilmore's "fight" to actually be executed.

Not exactly the best written book in the world, but I would still recommend it.

Did you see the made for television film starring Tommy Lee Jones and one of the Arquette sisters? It was excellent [I've been a fan of Jones ever since]?

The argument is about the death penalty or not- if it is accepted that the death penalty is acceptable, and I certainly do NOT- then a firing squad may well be better than lethal injection, but certainly not worse.