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Florida Is Executing Prisoners at a Record Pace
- rbanffy 4mo agoJust imagine how empty and devoid of meaning is the life of someone who goes to a prison and blasts “Another One Bites the Dust” to celebrate the execution of someone they never met. Don't they have anyone they'd rather spend time with? Or does anyone else want to spend time with them?
- Jiro 4mo agoThis is probably the case for 80% of all jobs. People having fulfilling jobs is the exception, not the rule.
- rbanffy 4mo agoThis is not his job. It seems to be his life’s mission.
- Jtsummers 4mo agoIt's even sadder than that, he does this alone. He can't even find someone to counterprotest with him. > The counterprotester, meanwhile, a lean retiree named Bill Campbell, tried to drown out the sound with a boom box blasting “Another One Bites the Dust.” [emphasis mine] Not "One of the" or "Some" or "Among the counterprotesters", just the one lone counterprotester whose life is so devoid of meaning that he has chosen to fill it with a solitary celebration of death.
- rbanffy 4mo agoI am sure we can all guess how he votes.
- al_borland 4mo agoIs this article trying to make me feel bad for these people? > Frank Athen Walls was an American serial killer and rapist who committed five murders between 1985 and 1987 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_A._Walls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_A._Walls > Willacy attempted to strangle Sather with a telephone cord, and when that didn't work, he doused her in gasoline and set her on fire, records show. An autopsy determined that Sather had died from smoke inhalation, indicating she was still alive when she was set on fire. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/man-convicted-of-setting-neighbor-on-fire-during-1990-burglary-is-executed-in-florida https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/man-convicted-of-setting...
- kelseyfrog 4mo agoCan you have compassion, love even, for someone who has committed horrific acts? Honest question, what are your limits of compassion?
- worried4future 4mo agoCan you have compassion, love even, for someone who has been the victim of horrific acts? Honest question, what are your limits of compassion? Do you have compassion, love, or have you given a thought to the next victim of these criminals?
- kelseyfrog 4mo agoYes, I feel compassion for the victims of horrific crimes too. I can hold both of them in my heart at the same time. Simultaneously, I can understand the desire for the closure that comes with enacting the death penalty while being completely against it.
- worried4future 4mo agoIts not about vengeance or a desire for closure, I simply do not want these people to continue to exist. They offer no benefit to my society, they contribute nothing beneficial and never will, the sooner they are erased the better for society.
- kelseyfrog 4mo agoWhy would I choose to believe that my existence is predicated on my value to society? The modern project has been one of establishing a reality where individual moral status is inherent, rather than tied to God, the state, ethnicity, or social worth. I don't see a series of steps that would take me from my current stance to any of those. I'd have to overcome a very real moral revulsion.
- al_borland 4mo ago
- theflyingelvis 4mo agoProtip, don’t murder someone in Florida.
- nielsbot 4mo agoSo you're ok with the state killing criminals? What if they get the wrong person?
- theflyingelvis 4mo agoYes
- worried4future 4mo ago> So you're ok with the state killing criminals? Yes. > What if they get the wrong person? Don't kill those.
- kelseyfrog 4mo agoWe seem to be incapable of creating a perfect predictor - there will always be false positives. How do you square the moral implications of killing people by chance?
- antonymoose 4mo agoI’ve long seen this class of conversation on HN and my answer is always the same: introduce a higher burden of proof, maybe even “no doubt,” for capital punishment. Imagine a scenario where the Pulse nightclub shooter surrendered to police and was on death row now. There is no doubt at all that he did the killing. Why waste calories concerned for a demon like that?
- worried4future 4mo agoI'm fine with that if we can remove the technical error rate and barriers to actually executing these people. If you're caught in a situation like this you should not be in jail on death row for twenty years waiting for your execution while your lawyers try to find some narrow legal loophole to postpone your execution. E.g. Iryna Zarutska's killer (Decarlos Dejuan Brown). He should be dead already.
- Neywiny 4mo agoA very heavy article. I'm not sure I agree with blaming the governer at all for this. I'm not supporting him in any way, but the court decided who was guilty sometimes decades before. Whether he throws a dart to decide who or not, the only options are people who were convicted. I also take issue with this: > As she sat in traffic looking at the commuters around her, she realized none of them had any idea that a man was slated to die that day. It's a bit pedantic, but no she didn't. She may have hypothesized that, or guessed it, but she didn't realize it. She didn't know every person there. The commuter next to her might be even more in tune with the executions. She can't know that, so no she didn't realize that.
- silexia 4mo agoThe death penalty should be used far more frequently and for far more types of crime. Appeals should be fast and inexpensive.