Death Penalty

[Stump]

Well said, TC. I agree.
However, if I were on a jury having to decide.... I am not sure I could sentence someone to death.

[txinvestigator1]

Tessone,

You gotta give d o c u m e n a t i o n if you state something like this: "Proportionally more black and/or poor people convicted of murder one, for instance, are executed than white people convicted of the same crime.

I'm not talking about a difference in the number of convictions for a particular crime, I'm talking about the percentage of people who are sentenced to death for the same crime."

I ain't buyin.

[Armed and DWI]

Originally posted by Tessone
That's not what I mean. Proportionally more black and/or poor people convicted of murder one, for instance, are executed than white people convicted of the same crime.

I'm not talking about a difference in the number of convictions for a particular crime, I'm talking about the percentage of people who are sentenced to death for the same crime.

Anyhow, I don't think the state should be in the business of killing people. I'm the type of person that thinks life in prison without hope of parole and no access to books or a weight room is a much worse punishment than death.

Okay I did not realize that's what you meant. I did not know that, and that does indeed seem like a big problem. However, I think that problem specifically should be fixed rather than eliminate the whole death penalty altogether.

[Tessone]

Originally posted by txinvestigator1
Tessone,

You gotta give d o c u m e n a t i o n if you state something like this:

I'm sorry I didn't give any citations--I don't like it when other people say stuff like this off the cuff, so I shouldn't have either.

http://www.theelectricchair.com/stats.htm (stats from a former warden of Mississippi's death row and the NAACP)
According to that same site, in twenty years at least 48 people were released from death row after being found innocent.

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/racial.htm gives official statistics for death row in the state of Texas. Overall figures for that state can also be found on the site. (They also show a disturbing trend for re-imprisonment, as someone mentioned in another forum on this site).

If you'd like more stats, I can get them for you. You can also search Google and find a lot of information, both through anti-death penalty sites and official sites of various states.

[tcsd1236]

Originally posted by Tessone
Anyhow, I don't think the state should be in the business of killing people. I'm the type of person that thinks life in prison without hope of parole and no access to books or a weight room is a much worse punishment than death.

Last I knew, "life" imprisonment is defines as 25 years. That means thata 20 year old commiting a crime will most likely be out at 45. Not a bad deal..and under your plan, they'll have a college dgree and be all bulked up when they resume their criminal career....yeah, thats real fair to the family of the deceased. Fry them, I say.

"No access to books?" Have you ever WORKED in a jail? They have most of the same First Amendment rights that anyone else has, unless it can be shown that the material in qquestion is a hazzard to facility security.

[txinvestigator1]

Tessone,

Thanks, I'm kind of a meat and potatos guy.

[Tessone]

Originally posted by tcsd1236
Last I knew, "life" imprisonment is defines as 25 years. That means thata 20 year old commiting a crime will most likely be out at 45. Not a bad deal..and under your plan, they'll have a college dgree and be all bulked up when they resume their criminal career....yeah, thats real fair to the family of the deceased. Fry them, I say.

"No access to books?" Have you ever WORKED in a jail? They have most of the same First Amendment rights that anyone else has, unless it can be shown that the material in qquestion is a hazzard to facility security.

Life imprisonment without parole is life imprisonment without parole. I've never heard of any state that defines "life imprisonment" as a 25 year sentence. It's not my fault if prosecutors don't go after the no-parole option.

As for no books, that's what I'd do, not an expression of what prison life is like now. The First Amendment doesn't guarantee your right to read things, it guarantees your right to express yourself. As far as I'm concerned, they can talk to the walls about whatever they want, but I'd take away everything that could lighten the sheer desperation life imprisonment *should* bring.