From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Date: Fri Dec 04 1998 - 11:25:46 MST
Paul Hughes wrote:
> Brian D Williams wrote:
>
> > I oppose the electric chair, the gas chamber, and hanging, on the
> > grounds there is no need to be brutal.
Hanging, if done properly, is not cruel or brutal. If you do not drop very
far, then your neck vertebrae are not separated and you merely slowly
asphixiate, which is cruel. A skinny man needs to fall farther than a fat
man, for example, to get sufficient kinetic energy to be properly hung. A
few years ago a prisoner on death row ate himself into complete obesity in
an attempt to avoid execution. His appeals claimed that being fat would
make the rope decapitate him, which he thought was cruel and unusual
punishment. The courts differed, when physicians testified that he would
die faster that way, so he would be executed less cruelly than if he were
skinny.
I do think that:
a) executions should be publicized
b) family members of victims should be given priority in pushing the
button
c) the means of execution might be chosen to fit the crime. shooters
should be shot, knifers should be guillotined, rape/murderers should be
given that old punishment which the Romans used on female slaves: they are
sat onto a large metal spike until it comes out their mouths. A fit
punishment for a crime should make the perpetrator feel exactly how the
victim felt. This would not be 'cruel and unusual', since it does not
exceed the treatment that the victim received. If a killer knew that his
punishment was going to meet that which he or she imposed on his or her
victims, I think it would be a much better deterrent.
I prefer justice which is aesthetically fitting.
Mike Lorrey
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:49:54 MST