Death penalty for very serious crimes?

F

Firefly

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The current child abuse case has really upset me :mad:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1209/castlebar.html

This coward has been handed down a life sentence.

In cases like this I would be highly in favour of the death penalty. This animal (and that's an insult to animals everywhere) is IMO beyond redemption. What do others think?
 
I would agree to the death penalty for people like this. I can't think of any reason to keep him alive, or see how anyone could argue otherwise.
 
There is no punishment to match the crime in this case, a life sentence is nothing compared to the suffering he inflicted on numerous daughters, all of whom will still suffer the effects of these horrendous crimes for their entire lives. Many lives ruined and he gets to sit in a warm prison and fed 3 square a day from here on in.

Life in solitary plus hard labour might go some way to allowing him to think about what he did, but realistically even that wouldnt go to punish him for his actions.

The problem with the death penalty is the finality of it. Ok - this case is clear cut, but there are many cases that are not and if the death penalty is imposed and then new evidence comes to light later exonorating the person - theres no come back from death.

In this case there must be something mentally wrong with the guy, no 'normal' person could do what he did, is there any point in keeping someone (something) like this alive? Probably not. I certainly wouldnt complain if he was sentenced to death, but I would worry about cases where things are not so clear cut.
 
I don't think any state should have the right to sentence someone to death.
War is a different matter but I'm against the death penalty in any peacetime situation.
 
Purple said:
I don't think any state should have the right to sentence someone to death.
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I dont know, when someone is a monster - like that guy Fritz in Austria, or Ted Bundy - is there any point in keeping someone like that (someone who it is not possible to rehabilitate) alive and locked up costing the taxpayers money for a reasonably comfortable life (ie, not starving, not cold, reasonably safe)?
 

Its a good job the death penalty wasn't in place when Nora Wall and Pablo McCabe were convicted and sentenced for a shocking child rape offence that was later found to be fictitious. Sadly McCabe died prematurely within a few years of his ordeal so in a sense he did suffer a form of the death penalty, even when totally innocent.
 
I had to stop reading about that case in the paper this morning it was so upsetting.

Words fail me.

People who hurt children, the likes of Fred and Rosemary West, Hindley and Brady the Moors murders who did what what they did for enjoyment. Sickening.

The solution? Death penalty, Life imprisonment? I really dont know. I just cannot fathom people getting enjoyment from watching and inflicting pain on defenceless children.
What kind of a society allows this kind of aberration to develop. I just dont know.
 

I'd have thought that your acceptance of his mental illness would be a good reason NOT to consider capital punishment.
 
I don't agree with the death penalty. Its a dangerous line to cross, one human being deciding that another should be killed. Also, is it worth some innocent people being wrongly executed in order to get rid of the 'monsters'.

I do think, for some crimes, 'life' should mean life, not twenty years with five off for good behaviour.
 
truthseeker said:
is there any point in keeping someone like that (someone who it is not possible to rehabilitate) alive and locked up costing the taxpayers money for a reasonably comfortable life (ie, not starving, not cold, reasonably safe)?
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I have heard many times that the costs of a capital punishment case exceed the cost of lifetime imprisonment, don't know if it's true.
 
It would be cheaper and more effective to get rid of segregation in the prisons instead of keeping some prisoners separated for their own safety
 
I think the possibility of getting it wrong means that we probably shouldn't have the death penalty. I would like to see this guy shipped to a really tough US federal jail where he can become the special prison friend of some big 300 pound fellow-lifer - or maybe a special friend to many.

And no possibility of release ever. He threatened his daughter that no matter how long he was in for he would find her and kill her - so there's only one way to make her feel safe that that will never happen.
 
liaconn said:
I do think, for some crimes, 'life' should mean life, not twenty years with five off for good behaviour.
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I agree. We should have life without parole as an available sentence, which is appropriate in this case imo. His wife got an effective eight year sentence for [broken link removed] in the crimes against their kids. 24 years to serve 24 and not a day less would be what I would have like to have seen. Concurrent sentences are also a farce imo.
 

And if we got it wrong on this case you think it's ok to send him to america to be raped in a tough prison??

I think that the death penalty is apt in some cases and the prisoners should be kept in holding for a fixed number of years to allow for appeals. If there is no reasonable doubt, then let it happen.
 
Complainer said:
I'd have thought that your acceptance of his mental illness would be a good reason NOT to consider capital punishment.
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She said there must be something mentally wrong, it wasn't an acceptance of anything, more a disbelief that one human could be so inhumane to another. If he was found to be mentally ill, I would still support the death sentance in his case.
 

I take your point, but death sentences are rarely carried out immediately. Usually, a long stint in prison proceeds them so the two named above would not have been executed in that case. I'm sure though that there are other cases in the US where people have been wrongly executed so your point still stands. Sadly, a life in prison where free meals are enjoyed seems totally unfair either.
 
MrMan said:
And if we got it wrong on this case you think it's ok to send him to america to be raped in a tough prison??
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I didn't say in ALL cases - I said 'this guy'. He pleaded guilty to some pretty horrific stuff; there are scars as corroboration of his crimes in case you're worried the poor man might have pleaded guilty when he's not; the doctor said he cringed when he examined the scar where 'this guy' stabbed his daughter's flesh and dragged the knife down then stitched her up with thick thread and no anaesthetic. So honestly I don't care what is done to him, it's a shame he won't suffer anywhere near as much as he inflicted on his own children.
 
How did the Social Workers, neighbours, the local Gardai, Teachers, local Publican....how did none of them have an inkling what was going on.
This was serious serious crimes carried out over 18 years on 4 different people - surely people had to know something was not right. And it's not like it happened 40 or 50 years ago.
There's an awful lot more to be incovered here
 
MrMan said:
She said there must be something mentally wrong, it wasn't an acceptance of anything,
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How can there be 'something mentally wrong' with their being a mental illness? What other kind of 'mentally wrong' is there?
 
Purple said:
I don't think any state should have the right to sentence someone to death.
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Me neither, I have a consistent life ethic. To dehumanise offenders and put them down like dogs would IMHO be ultimately detrimental to society as a whole.

Claims of mental illness or temporary insanity should only be entertained after verdicts are reached, in order to determine if the offender should serve the sentence in a prison or a secure hospital facility. Should those serving a sentence in a hospital facility recover their faculties then ship them off to prison to complete their sentence.
 
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