QuakerInfo.com Forum

[Pulpculture]

I have just come across these statistics (they probably common knowledge to those in the USA but news to me in the UK)

US Methods Of Execution

Lethal injection: Authorised in 37 states (plus US military & federal government)
Electrocution: In 10 states (sole method in Nebraska)
Gas chamber: In five states (all of which have lethal injection as alternative)
Hanging: Only in New Hampshire and Washington
Firing squad: In Idaho and Oklahoma. It is available to inmates in Utah who chose it before the method was banned

I was shocked that a country, such as the USA, still puts a rope round someones neck and hangs them to kill them. If I'm honest the last 4 are totally barbaric.
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I said don't forget Burma!

[barbara_q]

...
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http://www.pax-et-lux.blogspot.com/

"Together, let us reject the clamour of fear and listen to the whisperings of hope."
Statement on Peace, Aotearoa (New Zealand) Yearly Meeting

[barbara_q]

[punkrainbow]

[Anthony]

When George Bush became the US President I experienced a chill down my spine - why? At that time I had befriended a man on death row in Texas and was in receipt of newsletters that informed me of what was happening in the various states regarding execution. Therefore, I was well informed about the 'Texecution Governor.'

Is a governor's attitude towards the death penalty an indicator of a presidential candidate's enthusiasm for war?

[Dan]

It is interesting to me that so many in the 'prolife" camp would also vehemently support capital punishment.

I wonder how much sense this makes? Is it not inconsistent?

If we are pro life on one end, then we surely need to be on the other. I know the law "beareth not the sword in vain" as the Bible says but surely killing a person for his/her crimes is not right. Since God is the giver of life, then only He whould be allowed to take it.

This would send a more consistent message to the prodeath crowd. Which seems to believe that killing the preborn is OK but the death penalty is wrong. Oh my!

Killing the person for their crime is to remove them from this world and take away any oportunity they may have to repent of their sins and come to the light. I do not really see how Christian people could justify such a thing.

Thy friend,
Dan

[punkrainbow]

[kevin roberts]

[Anthony]

[BillSamuel]

The readiness to execute indicates a belief that killing can be an appropriate way to deal with problems, so logically it would be an indicator. I do think a governor eager to use the death penalty would tend to be more prone to be warlike. But also people are often not logical and consistent, so it's not going to be a perfect correlation.

I would note that Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama are all supporters of the death penalty - and in Obama's case he supports it even though he states it is ineffective. All three also support increasing the military budget. So there seems to be some consistency there.
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Bill Samuel, Silver Spring, MD, USA
Co-Coordinator, Friends in Christ

[CelticNorth]

I sometimes think that the death penalty is cleary deserved by those individuals who have committed premediated, henious murder without remorse. The problem is that the legal system is not a fair playing field economically and racially, and those of us who desire fair and equal justice for everyone find the process a complete failure. The sheer expense alone, in some death penalty trials, argues for a reduced penalty of life in prison without the possiblility of parole. Captial crimes procesution in many states carry a such a high cost to the judicial system, that the death penalty will someday be eliminated merely due to its cost. A victory against the death penalty obtained not my moral imperitive, but by economics. In many cases, one reads where a defense attorney appointed to a capital crimes defendant has no experience whatsoever in a death pentalty case; of prosecutors who willfully exclude evidence helpful to the defense; and of witnesses who are paid informants for the state. As gruesome and as vile are the murders who commit the crime, the system used to prosecute them is no less evil.

[Keith Maddison]

Recently on British TV an ex-Conservative Home Secretary (that is the man in charge of Law & Order) Michel Portilo did an investigation into the death penalty in the USA, to see which was the most painless. It was all a bit gruesome, but in his findings he found all the methods used involved pain to the prisoner. He found one method that was not only pain free but actually put the prisoner in a state of euphoria. This method was withdrawing oxygen, he proved it having oxygen withdrawn form himself, until moments before death when he was given oxygen and recovered. When he presented his findings to US politicians, (I do not know who they were) they said that would be no good as we want these people to suffer. For me that said it all, the death penalty is about vengeance, apart from that we know it serves no other purpose. By the way Portilo is not pro-death penalty.
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Don't follow leaders and watch the parking meters, the pumps don't work because the vandals took the handles.
Keith

[Shay]

http://www.michaelportillo.co.uk/articles/art_nipress/death_penalty.htm

[Keith Maddison]

Thank you for that Shay, I was a few months ago when it was TV. I did not realize it was on the net. I just remembered the TV program reading the forum, and thought friends may be interested.
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Don't follow leaders and watch the parking meters, the pumps don't work because the vandals took the handles.
Keith

[Shay]