Punishment

[ChrisA]

Not to offer an opinion, but this is quite topical...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4490842.stm

How many of the 150 miscarriages of justice since the 50s that were mentioned earlier on this thread IIRC would have resulted in executions if they'd spent as long on death row as they tend to in the USA?

Just wondering if the "we shouldn't kill people that might have been innocent" argument weakens if there is a long time between conviction and execution.

Not that I like the whole death row thing either.

Thought "The Green Mile" was awesome though. Very harrowing I found it, felt exhausted by the end, but was strangely glad I'd watched it...

[David Bailey]

Not to offer an opinion, but this is quite topical...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4490842.stm

That article also mentions death rates per state, which I think are worth reproducing here:

Texas - 355
Virginia - 94
Oklahoma - 79
Missouri - 66
Florida - 60
Georgia - 39
North Carolina - 38
South Carolina, Alabama - 34 each
Louisiana, Arkansas - 27 each
Arizona - 22
Ohio - 19
Indiana - 16
Delaware - 14
Illinois - 12
Nevada, California - 11 each
Mississippi, Utah - 6 each
Maryland, Washington - 4 each
Nebraska, Pennsylvania - 3 each
Kentucky, Montana, Oregon - 2 each
Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, New Mexico, Tennessee, Wyoming - 1 each
US government - 3

Note: Texas : 22 million people, 355 executions. New Mexico (right next to Texas): 2 million people, 1 execution.

So, even adjusting for populations, unless Texas is 30 times more lawless than New Mexico, you've got to think that most of these executions are more influenced by politics than by justice. Which strikes me as a bad thing.

How many of the 150 miscarriages of justice since the 50s that were mentioned earlier on this thread IIRC would have resulted in executions if they'd spent as long on death row as they tend to in the USA?

Difficult to tell - 150 was pretty much a wild guess on my part, so extrapolating further is even more wild.

Just wondering if the "we shouldn't kill people that might have been innocent" argument weakens if there is a long time between conviction and execution.

It depends on how much you play the numbers game - i.e. what's an acceptable state-sponsored murder rate? To me, the current rate of zero is pretty acceptable.

[LordOfTheFiles]

It depends on how much you play the numbers game - i.e. what's an acceptable state-sponsored murder rate? To me, the current rate of zero is pretty acceptable.

7 is the answer. We mentioned it before. 7 a year - no more, no less

[David Bailey]

7 is the answer. We mentioned it before. 7 a year - no more, no less

Sorry, I forgot.

So the trick is to wait until 7 have been unjustly killed in one year, then you're OK? I guess the end of December is a good time on that measure...

[LordOfTheFiles]

Sorry, I forgot.

So the trick is to wait until 7 have been unjustly killed in one year, then you're OK? I guess the end of December is a good time on that measure...

Exactly. And luckily there will always be some people knocking about in prison who have murdered somebody, so if we are say at a very poor 5 state sponsored murders a year, then we can knock a couple off before New Year