12 ms·

I'd think that it matters how many innocent people are executed vs how many lives are saved by deterring potential murderers, and my trouble is I don't know how

by zaidf 11y ago

I'd think that it matters how many innocent people are executed vs how many lives are saved by deterring potential murderers, and my trouble is I don't know how to get those numbers. I could not disagree with you more! It should not matter how much total good it does if even one person is wrongly killed via the death penalty. It sounds like a logically sound thing until you find yourself being the one person society has decided to kill for the better good of the society.

dllthomas 11y ago
You find yourself no worse off than the victim of an undeterred murder. That said, I understand the deterrent effect to be often assumed to be far greater than reality bears out, and I think the death penalty is quite a poor practice on balance for a host of reasons.
- codeddesign 11y ago
  Or you just put the blood on the prosecutors hands. If they wrongfully execute someone, then they are the ones to be executed. I guarantee there will be a lot less death penalty cases ;)
  - dllthomas 11y ago
    "Or you just..." as opposed to what? I'm not sure how your comment is meant to relate to mine. It's certainly true that threatening prosecutors with execution in the event of a wrongful execution would stop them from pursuing the death penalty in almost any case. The same is true of a threat of life in prison, and probably also true of substantially lesser sentences.
  - vidarh 11y ago
    Franquin's Idées Noires is one of my all time favourite comics, and one of the one pagers dealt with the death penalty (France still had the death penalty at the time it was first published in Spirou in the last 70's), expressing a similarly effective approach to making it unpalatable.. [1]. A rough translation (my French is rusty - been a decade or two): "The law is clear: Anyone who intentionally kills another will lose their head. Let the executioner do his duty." "This way, my friend" "And so, a good deed done" "I'm sorry, but anyone who intentionally kills another..." (Idées Noires is fantastic and macabre. Franquin kept "letting" people who causes suffering for other people - or animals - die horrible deaths in his panels, often with a solid dose of poetic justice in between other things, and coupled with rather caustic political commentary. Unfortunately, AFAIK I don't think there is an English translation (one was in the works), but even with quite modest French they're relatively easy to understand (many of them don't have much or any text)) [1] http://www.franquin.com/in/album3_in.php http://www.franquin.com/in/album3_in.php - rightmost panel on the top.
- zaidf 11y ago
  Let's entertain your idea for a second. If a person wrongfully executed for killing someone, why not continue that process by prosecuting the prosecutor or jury for the wrongful conviction?
  - dllthomas 11y ago
    I'm not sure what idea of mine is being entertained, here.

by zaidf 11y ago

dllthomas 11y ago

You find yourself no worse off than the victim of an undeterred murder. That said, I understand the deterrent effect to be often assumed to be far greater than reality bears out, and I think the death penalty is quite a poor practice on balance for a host of reasons.

codeddesign 11y ago
Or you just put the blood on the prosecutors hands. If they wrongfully execute someone, then they are the ones to be executed. I guarantee there will be a lot less death penalty cases ;)
- dllthomas 11y ago
  "Or you just..." as opposed to what? I'm not sure how your comment is meant to relate to mine. It's certainly true that threatening prosecutors with execution in the event of a wrongful execution would stop them from pursuing the death penalty in almost any case. The same is true of a threat of life in prison, and probably also true of substantially lesser sentences.
- vidarh 11y ago
  Franquin's Idées Noires is one of my all time favourite comics, and one of the one pagers dealt with the death penalty (France still had the death penalty at the time it was first published in Spirou in the last 70's), expressing a similarly effective approach to making it unpalatable.. [1]. A rough translation (my French is rusty - been a decade or two): "The law is clear: Anyone who intentionally kills another will lose their head. Let the executioner do his duty." "This way, my friend" "And so, a good deed done" "I'm sorry, but anyone who intentionally kills another..." (Idées Noires is fantastic and macabre. Franquin kept "letting" people who causes suffering for other people - or animals - die horrible deaths in his panels, often with a solid dose of poetic justice in between other things, and coupled with rather caustic political commentary. Unfortunately, AFAIK I don't think there is an English translation (one was in the works), but even with quite modest French they're relatively easy to understand (many of them don't have much or any text)) [1] http://www.franquin.com/in/album3_in.php http://www.franquin.com/in/album3_in.php - rightmost panel on the top.
zaidf 11y ago
Let's entertain your idea for a second. If a person wrongfully executed for killing someone, why not continue that process by prosecuting the prosecutor or jury for the wrongful conviction?
- dllthomas 11y ago
  I'm not sure what idea of mine is being entertained, here.