Man takes 2 hours to die after lethal injection

[Danarth]

Or we could just stop. Killing people doesn't deter crime.

Perhaps it would be prudent to stop wasting money on the death penalty and look at what actually causes crime.

I'm with you. If we are to grow as a species, we need to strive for a higher standard of ethics.

Hell, if people don't want to go for the ethical approach, then there is still the economic angle. The death penalty is expensive. So, all these fiscal conservative types should support the abolition of the death penalty too.

[Canadian Mojo]

Or we could just stop. Killing people doesn't deter crime.

Perhaps it would be prudent to stop wasting money on the death penalty and look at what actually causes crime.

I'm with you. If we are to grow as a species, we need to strive for a higher standard of ethics.

Hell, if people don't want to go for the ethical approach, then there is still the economic angle. The death penalty is expensive. So, all these fiscal conservative types should support the abolition of the death penalty too.

Nah, they'd just claim that the process is flawed and needs to be overhauled since obviously it should be cheaper to kill someone now than it should to incarcerate them for 30+ years.

...you know, just like the answer to all our economic woes is to deregulate industry and remove all protections.
 

[Ironchew]

Or we could just stop. Killing people doesn't deter crime.

Perhaps it would be prudent to stop wasting money on the death penalty and look at what actually causes crime.

I'm with you. If we are to grow as a species, we need to strive for a higher standard of ethics.

Hell, if people don't want to go for the ethical approach, then there is still the economic angle. The death penalty is expensive. So, all these fiscal conservative types should support the abolition of the death penalty too.

The huge problem with the economic argument is that it doesn't have to be expensive at all to kill someone. That is why other moral arguments against the death penalty are more important.

[Sigmaleph]

Or we could just stop. Killing people doesn't deter crime.

Perhaps it would be prudent to stop wasting money on the death penalty and look at what actually causes crime.

I'm with you. If we are to grow as a species, we need to strive for a higher standard of ethics.

Hell, if people don't want to go for the ethical approach, then there is still the economic angle. The death penalty is expensive. So, all these fiscal conservative types should support the abolition of the death penalty too.

Nah, they'd just claim that the process is flawed and needs to be overhauled since obviously it should be cheaper to kill someone now than it should to incarcerate them for 30+ years.

Well, it is somewhat odd. I wouldn't be surprised if it was in fact possible to overhaul the system and make the death penalty cheaper, without making it worse than it is on the whole "false conviction" front.

I'm not saying we should. But it might be doable.

[dpareja]

Or we could just stop. Killing people doesn't deter crime.

Perhaps it would be prudent to stop wasting money on the death penalty and look at what actually causes crime.

I'm with you. If we are to grow as a species, we need to strive for a higher standard of ethics.

Hell, if people don't want to go for the ethical approach, then there is still the economic angle. The death penalty is expensive. So, all these fiscal conservative types should support the abolition of the death penalty too.

Nah, they'd just claim that the process is flawed and needs to be overhauled since obviously it should be cheaper to kill someone now than it should to incarcerate them for 30+ years.

Well, it is somewhat odd. I wouldn't be surprised if it was in fact possible to overhaul the system and make the death penalty cheaper, without making it worse than it is on the whole "false conviction" front.

I'm not saying we should. But it might be doable.

The cost is, by my understanding, that of all the appeals. Cutting costs on death penalty cases would probably mean cutting the number of opportunities the convict has to appeal the verdict.

[Witchyjoshy]

Or we could just stop. Killing people doesn't deter crime.

Perhaps it would be prudent to stop wasting money on the death penalty and look at what actually causes crime.

I'm with you. If we are to grow as a species, we need to strive for a higher standard of ethics.

Hell, if people don't want to go for the ethical approach, then there is still the economic angle. The death penalty is expensive. So, all these fiscal conservative types should support the abolition of the death penalty too.

Nah, they'd just claim that the process is flawed and needs to be overhauled since obviously it should be cheaper to kill someone now than it should to incarcerate them for 30+ years.

Well, it is somewhat odd. I wouldn't be surprised if it was in fact possible to overhaul the system and make the death penalty cheaper, without making it worse than it is on the whole "false conviction" front.

I'm not saying we should. But it might be doable.

The cost is, by my understanding, that of all the appeals. Cutting costs on death penalty cases would probably mean cutting the number of opportunities the convict has to appeal the verdict.

Unfortunately, to do that, you'd have to change the legal system overall, because juries are an imperfect people who can be swayed by pretty arguments and the race of the accused and the victim.

After all, we had an innocent black man executed even as new evidence came to light about his innocence, and yet people were convinced that just because he was convicted by a jury, that he was somehow actually guilty.

As long as prejudice exists in the USA, a jury will always be imperfect, and innocent people will always be convicted.

And prejudice will always exist.

[Sigmaleph]

The cost is, by my understanding, that of all the appeals. Cutting costs on death penalty cases would probably mean cutting the number of opportunities the convict has to appeal the verdict.

It's all sorts of things. Death penalty trials take longer at basically every stage than life without parole trials. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty

Presumably it's because people want to be extra-careful when sending someone to die, but it does make you wonder. Either all these extra costs are necessary to ascertain innocence to a reasonable degree, or they are not. If the first, it suggests there are proportionally lots of people serving life without parole who are innocent. If the second, it suggests the state wastes millions in death penalty cases for no good reason.

Either way, something is broken.

[Cloud3514]

I support the death penalty (with restrictions) but I do think we need a better method than lethal injection. My suggestion is a shotgun blast to the head - destroy the condemned's brain before he even has a chance to feel pain.

Tell that to James Vance

Hey, I've seen that documentary. The guy's mother blamed Judas Priest for the suicide attempt that disfigured him. Also, the only reason the attempt didn't succeed was because the gun slipped because he was drunk and the gun was covered in his friend's (who did successfully commit suicide) blood. In other words, he missed.