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 Capital Punishment 

Do you support Capital Punishment?
Poll ended at Wed May 06, 2015 1:32 am
Yes 47%  47%  [ 8 ]
No 47%  47%  [ 8 ]
Unsure 6%  6%  [ 1 ]
Total votes : 17

 Capital Punishment 
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Postby phunkyfeelone » Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:22 am


With all the news around Bali at the moment, and the perception from the Government that every Australian is against the death penalty, I'm wondering what side others are falling on?

Please try to keep responses professional and on point, it's OK to disagree and provide your reasons, but keep it civil if anyone chooses to respond.

For the record, I think spending so much resource trying to save the lives of two drug ring leaders is wasteful.
My take is that the laws of the country need to be respected, and if that means death, it means death.

But to threaten to take away or not provide humanitarian aid is ridiculous and more inhumane than executing two criminals.
Plus, this stupid video from "celebrities" with the hashtag #bringourboyshome like they are some kind of heroes is offensive.


Rant over...


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Martin Prince
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Postby wolverine » Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:39 am


I've made your thread into a poll so maybe we get some anonymous votes who wouldn't leave a comment otherwise.

Personally, I'm not sure either way. On one hand, laws of the country must be respected and drug dealers devastate communities with their trade. Where there is a violent crime, offender admitted guilt and there is overwhelming DNA evidence, I would say yes. But tying someone to a pole and shooting at them seems quite a barbaric way to execute someone. I would have thought lethal injection is a more humane way to go.


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Postby HumphreyBBear » Wed Apr 29, 2015 3:23 pm


I don't even trust the Government to tax me correctly, or spend my taxes properly: Why would I trust them with the power to execute me?
At least if the courts/government make a mistake with my taxes, or unjustly send me to jail, there is a possibility of compensation.

They cannot compensate me if they have murdered me! :chainsaw:


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Postby SKaVeN » Wed Apr 29, 2015 8:29 pm


No for me. I consider it draconian. Spending ten years rehabilitating people just to kill them at the end anyway is not my idea of enlightened and effective justice.

I feel the same way as everyone else when it comes to rapists, serial killers, paedophiles, etc. but when it comes to serious matters such as law reform, I think we need to consider the proposal and it's implications logically and subjectively and not let our decision by governed or affected by our feelings.

In Australia, someone only has to be found guilty "beyond reasonable doubt". Is this always going to be a conclusive enough verdict to end someone's life? Even if it is accurate as much as 99% of the time, is not the life of one innocent worth more than the lives 99 guilty?

The other alternative is to add another verdict being "beyond any doubt". Does that mean that the jury, a cross-section of the community who have no forensic or criminology expertise (and are selected because of that) are qualified to make that distinction between "reasonable" or "any" doubt and be entrusted to always get it right? Even as much as 99% of the time?

Or should the jury simply deliver a verdict of "guilty" or "not guilty" and allow the judge to make the distinction between "reasonable" or "any" doubt, thus reducing our constitutional right of being trialled by our peers? And should the high court judges of this country be given the power of life and death over the rest of us? Several of them have hardly conducted themselves as decent law-abiding citizens themselves. And for each crime the death sentence gets passed, a precedent is set.

If we sentence someone to gaol and new evidence comes to light that proves their innocence (and it can still happen), they can be released and compensated. You can't give someone back their life.

EDIT: It is not even proven to be effective as a deterrent. In fact, some of the countries and US states that have some of the highest crime rates are the ones that do have death penalty.


Last edited by SKaVeN on Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.



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Postby Some Bloke » Wed Apr 29, 2015 8:44 pm


I'm all for capital punishment.

Crimes like paedophilia, torture, rape, terrorism and planned murder should have that penalty.

Some people cannot fulfill the basic requirements that our society expects of them, so they should be relieved of their existence.

Also, it's is far crueler, and inhumane to lock a criminal up, with no chance of freedom, to die of old age in gaol. We wouldn't do that to a wayward animal, why do we do it to a fellow human being?


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Postby HumphreyBBear » Thu Apr 30, 2015 1:21 am


Some Bloke wrote:
Also, it's is far crueler, and inhumane to lock a criminal up, with no chance of freedom, to die of old age in gaol. We wouldn't do that to a wayward animal, why do we do it to a fellow human being?


Well, we murder animals such as pigs and chickens everyday, after locking them up for their entire lives. We also murder "wayward" cats and dogs for no other reason than they are "wayward". Additionally, as long as a person is alive they can still be freed e.g. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (from the famous Bob Dylan song).

I say it does more justice to Jill Meagher that Adrian Bailey spends the rest of his life thinking about what a cunt he is than to give him the swift deliverance that he himself requested. The same thing goes for Julian Knight, that prick potentially could've killed me back in '87 just for a "thrill": I hope they both die in gaol! :punch:

However, essentially, I have two main issues with capital punishment:

1. Who decides who dies for what reason? (Are you going to leave it up to politicians like Cori Bernardi, or Craig Thompson?)

2. What happens if the "State" gets it wrong? i.e. a false conviction?

Do you remember Justice of the Federal Court of Australia Marcus Einfeld? He was convicted of committing perjury, and perverting the course of justice, along with 11 other offences over a $77 traffic ticket.

Are these the kind of people you would like deciding who gets executed? :nervous:


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Postby SKaVeN » Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:04 pm


Anyone who thinks rapists or paedophiles (aka: rock spiders) have been given a lesser sentence by being sent to gaol instead of the gallows has obviously never discussed the subject with someone who works in Correction Services.


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Postby SKaVeN » Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:13 pm


PS: I don't normally edit my posts but I did my first as there was another point I neglected to mention.


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Postby phunkyfeelone » Fri May 01, 2015 10:58 pm


Good points on both sides of the issue, appreciate that nobody took the "f'n scumbag drug pusher" approach.

My underlying feeling is that the laws need to be respected, regardless of how draconian they may seem.
Lethal injection is actually more traumatic, it takes 15-20 minutes to die, a period of extreme pain and burning from the inside out, strapped to a table.
Seems odd, but decapitation is the quickest method with the least trauma.

I agree that where the crime has a long term or permanent effect on an innocent victim (rape, child crimes, murder etc.), capital punishment should be an option, but only if the victim's family agrees. What I don't like is spending $120k per year locking someone in a box - just end them now. What people fail to see is that capital punishment is available to more than half the world's population (ok, China and India are easy wins in that category)

I once dated (well, slept with a bunch of times) a psychologist from Barwon max, when she told me there were only about 5 crims she thought were truly evil and couldn't be rehabilitated, I lost my shit...she said if I can't accept her job, we don't have a future.

The other side of this is the hypocrisy on behalf of the Government - "we" condemn the Indonesian government for executing two convicted criminals, and are "against capital punishment", yet sign free trade agreements with China (4500+ executed last year), and go to war alongside the USA (35 last year), plus many others. It seems our government are only against the capital punishment of Australians.


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Martin Prince
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Postby phunkyfeelone » Sat May 02, 2015 8:34 pm


A good example of how media push the popularity barrow, rather than simply report the facts.
The Daily Telegraph from 2006, openly reporting that they will die for their crimes.

Cut forward to this week, talk of brave boys and execution is bad etc.

M 625x841 180


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