There is the question, could you pull the handle to take another's life. Would you perseonally take the responsibility for another's death, and if so does that make you any different for the person being executed.

It's all a matter of perspective, and as long as we are only human and therefore your hypothetical becomes moot.

Now consider perhaps a "Devil's Island" environment where you put these perpetrators, where there is no possibilty of parole or escape, would remove them from society, and no one is left to do execution. Would this be okay, or do we as a society want to exact a punitive response?

Oh, how I love philosophy.

[Edited by Zippy on 03-07-2001 at 08:36 AM]

 

Yes I would personally pull the trigger myself, if that were the only way that capital punishment could be enforced. To me, it's simply a matter of administering justice, and I see no problem with that. The way I see it, it takes a substantial amount of evil and hatred to take the initiative to kill another person, so the death penalty is only fitting.

As for your "Devil's Island" idea, sure I'd be all for that, but they'd all die out real quickly since no one would be there to feed em.

 

Good to know you've got a fair idea on justice.

You said in a previous post "When an innocent person is convicted, that is the fault of the court itself. Is executing an innocent person wrong? Yes, but so is putting an innocent person in prison"

I believe it's considerably easier to appeal from prison than the grave.

But to the question: You just said "Yes I would personally pull the trigger myself". So you not only support the courts decision, but could execute it without prejudice. If you were the executioner, but knew the prisoner was not guilty, could you still pull the trigger?

Some people have also said, "What if the victim was a relative or friend?". To this I say, "What if the offendant was your brother?". Not so easy to pull the trigger then is it?

It really isn't as simple in the real world.

 

Yup, so when you get the courts working 100% then we can talk about capitol punishment.

I mean, if the guy at the garage puts canola oil in your S, do you say "Well that's the garage's fault", and VTEC till your valves hole your pistons. No, you fix it first, then floor it.

Ahhh, I once again have to say it's not that simple. Executing innocents is only one of the grey areas of capitol punishment. You don't have to read many posts back to see that some people are concerned that capitol punishment is ineffectual as a deterrent, and could even be considered playing god. And that's a position I really don't want filled by a bunch of lawyers and a man in a wig and gown.

 

Hey Aus, I like the play on words in the way you spell capital punishment with an "o"- very clever!

Jay Li, how are those philosophy classes going in school, eh?

 

Over here the lawyers save that behavior for the evening.

 

Aus, I figured you would bring up the argument about appeals from prison. Fact is, some innocent people are placed in prison for very long spans of time (20-40 years) before they get out...for all practical purposes, this ends their life. Furthermore, they don't get a fair compensation for the court's mishandling of their case.

As for executing an innocent person...I certainly couldn't do that myself, but no system is perfect...you have to take the goods and the bads. If my own brother were to be on death row? Well if he did it, he deserves his punishment, that's all I can say.