I may have my answer but..

My first question is, should getting the DP depend on where the crime happens? Example, if you're murdered at home your murderer can only get life without parole, but if she murders you at your office she can get the DP.

My first question is, should getting the DP depend on where the crime happens? Example, if you're murdered at home your murderer can only get life without parole, but if she murders you at your office she can get the DP.

Huh.

Now I know USA state laws vary wildly - but I would have supposed that you have more protections in your home? Surely it is my god given right to feel safe in the place myself and my family reside, and anyone who interferes in that sacred place should face the highest available penalty? (Let's assume, for the sake of things, that death is considered worse than life without parole)

JamesSand wrote:

My first question is, should getting the DP depend on where the crime happens? Example, if you're murdered at home your murderer can only get life without parole, but if she murders you at your office she can get the DP.

Huh.

Now I know USA state laws vary wildly - but I would have supposed that you have more protections in your home? Surely it is my god given right to feel safe in the place myself and my family reside, and anyone who interferes in that sacred place should face the highest available penalty? (Let's assume, for the sake of things, that death is considered worse than life without parole)

If you live in El Paso, Texas, but your work and office is in Las Cruces, New Mexico, that's exactly the case. Texas has the DP and New Mexico does not. So where you kill someone is a factor in getting the DP or not. 19 states do not have the DP and 31 do. The federal government does have the DP. So even in a state that does not have the DP, if you commit certain federal offenses in that state you can still get the DP in federal court.

If you believe that where you commit a crime should not matter in being able to be eligible to be put to death, then you don't believe in the DP as it is in actual practice.

I don't believe in the DP in pretty much any situation. The only time I think the DP should be used is if the person in question can not be subduded in a way that makes them a constant danger to the public. And I don't mean like in the moment shootout type situation I more think like the Joker from Batman, someone who constantly breaks out of prison and is always going to be a threat to the public. Thankfully in the real world those are basically non existent. I don't personally believe in an afterlife, so taking the life of another human seems wrong. I feel like we do it because it makes us feel better, or at least we think it will at the time.

And I don't mean like in the moment shootout type situation I more think like the Joker from Batman, someone who constantly breaks out of prison and is always going to be a threat to the public. Thankfully in the real world those are basically non existent.

We don't have the Death Penalty (as such) but we do have "preventative detention" - essentially minority report type "We think you're up to no good, so get in the box" type situation.

If you get bored, read up on Garry David, who inspired Australian parliament to rewrite legislation is record time to prevent his release from incarceration.

My cousin/godbrother was recently murdered. It seemed like they were setting him up for a robbery and it didn't go as planned. I think our US Criminal Justice system is full of problems. I think the biggest problem is that the Justice System doesn't do enough to prevent crime. I can be mad about what happened to my cousin but would the shooter dying solve the problem of gun violence? Not at all. The Justice system mostly takes people out of society that society is afraid of. We lock them up so we can feel safer. Some of them have been locked up so long that they have simply matured out of the stage in which they were a threat to society. And a lot of the threats to society are generated by society itself and by a lack of opportunities, communities, education, etc. Many people come out of the system, not only with no means of supporting themselves and their families, but they're disadvantaged and its harder for them to work than it was before. And if they did crimes to survive why wouldn't they return to criminal activity once you've made it that much harder?

At some point you have to ask yourself, what's the purpose of it? I know my cousin. Let's say he didn't die and was only wounded. He would not want to get a gun and go do the same thing to that person. My cousin organized a Peace march meant to help raise awareness around the issues of gun violence plaguing our community. Many people wouldn't have even known that had he not been a victim of it. We keep killing people thinking that it solves some problem. All it does is teach people that you can solve problems by killing people. And maybe gangs think the same way the government does. Maybe they're simply "problem solving" when stray bullets hit little kids playing with toys in their rooms. We have more crime than other countries that have less guns and no Death Penalty. IF these thing worked then why aren't they working?

We spend a lot of money trying to solve problems in society in ways that don't actually help people. Someone murdered my cousin but I don't want them to die. I want them to learn what life and what living means. I want them to value life more; including their own. Because they don't care enough even about their own lives. And then what about their family? Maybe someone else loses a father or a big brother. Maybe someone is losing a person who could be working and helping to take care of their family. Now that family has the extra stress and burden of paying extremely high prices on commissary just so that the person they love has decent access to life's basics. You can say they don't deserve that but who does? And who are we to decide? And why does their family need to be punished to? And what if.... what if they weren't even guilty???

From a sense of Justice and Security I would have no problem taking a life if it was necessary; if someone posed an imminent threat to my family or myself. But if they're not, then I value their lives even if they fail to value their own.

Ok so I've been a bit absent from things, due to life, but Okay, I still consider myself in the middle. I believe that if someone comes into my home and tries to kill my family, and I shoot them, and if I kill them in self defense, then that is ok. Also in the case of child molestors, I believe they also deserve death. This is my opinion. I strongly still believe that in these situations,each case is different and in some death is the answer. In others, death is not. So In a way, to me there is no UNIVERSAL right or wrong in this case, only in each person's morals and values. I neither accept, nor condemn the death penalty. But i do agree that our Justice system needs an overhaul. I mean, for crying out loud, look at who's president and what's going on right now in this country....Such morbid atrocities to our environment, our planet, and our children's futures.

Edit: Eh, not sure my post had any real point. Hidden until coffee.