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Posted

...On both counts, all else being equal, a society with capital punishment is clearly less civilized than one without.

Perhaps, but that doesn't exclude capital punishment from a civilized society. Many past attributes of "civilized" society compared to "primitive barbarians" are now considered to be abhorrent.....yet, capital punishment endures.

Economics trumps Virtue. 

 

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Posted

As a European there must be some in-built sentiment in me against capital punishment but I do realise the arguments of the proponents do make sense too. If you take someone like Timothy McVeigh, does anyone really honestly think he didn't deserve to die because of his atrocious crime?

Posted

Perhaps, but that doesn't exclude capital punishment from a civilized society. Many past attributes of "civilized" society compared to "primitive barbarians" are now considered to be abhorrent.....yet, capital punishment endures.

It does where you live. Go look up who you share that noteriety with.

Posted

As a European there must be some in-built sentiment in me against capital punishment but I do realise the arguments of the proponents do make sense too. If you take someone like Timothy McVeigh, does anyone really honestly think he didn't deserve to die because of his atrocious crime?

And that's the kicker. The concept of "deserve" is generally unaffected by ones religion. That a person does such horrible things tends to make us all feel he deserves the same in return. The concept of an eye for an eye might be in the bible, but most of us don't get it from there. It's a gut instinct that tells us what kind of justice someone 'deserves' based on what harm they've caused and why they caused it.

"A liberal is someone who claims to be open to all points of view — and then is surprised and offended to find there are other points of view.” William F Buckley

Posted

Perhaps, but that doesn't exclude capital punishment from a civilized society. Many past attributes of "civilized" society compared to "primitive barbarians" are now considered to be abhorrent.....yet, capital punishment endures.

Agreed. Obviously the USA is a civilized society and so is China. I am sure that one day humans will look back at 2014 and ask, "how could such a civilized society support the death penalty?".

Posted

Agreed. Obviously the USA is a civilized society and so is China. I am sure that one day humans will look back at 2014 and ask, "how could such a civilized society support the death penalty?".

I am sure that the U.S. states that never had capital punishment or those that abolished it over the past 150 years asked the same thing about a civilized Canada retaining the death penalty until 1976 (or even 22 years later for DND military law).

Economics trumps Virtue. 

 

Posted

Agreed. Obviously the USA is a civilized society and so is China. I am sure that one day humans will look back at 2014 and ask, "how could such a civilized society support the death penalty?".

I am sure that the U.S. states that never had capital punishment or those that abolished it over the past 150 years asked the same thing about a civilized Canada retaining the death penalty until 1976 (or even 22 years later for DND military law).

The last person the government murdered in Canada was in '61. You still have 32 states that do it regularly.

Posted

The last person the government murdered in Canada was in '61. You still have 32 states that do it regularly.

I wasn't aware it was a contest....but many U.S. states got rid of the death penalty long before 1961. The USSC actually suspended all executions in the U.S. from 1972 - 1976. I guess "civilized" is a relative thing.

Economics trumps Virtue. 

 

Posted (edited)

Are you now suggesting we go back and allow religion to govern our laws?

Judeo-Christian values do just that....in Canada and the U.S.A. Plus one of them has a monarchy with a bejeweled crown. The death penalty survived all of that.

Edited by bush_cheney2004

Economics trumps Virtue. 

 

Posted

I wasn't aware it was a contest....but many U.S. states got rid of the death penalty long before 1961. The USSC actually suspended all executions in the U.S. from 1972 - 1976. I guess "civilized" is a relative thing.

Maybe just have a quick look back at the heading here.

Posted

What about the other 32? When we make a moral decision in Canada, we go all out.

What about them ? Several of those states haven't executed anybody for many decades despite having capital punishment. Others have a moratorium on executions. Canada was way behind the others that never had capital punishment or abolished it a long time ago. So much for going "all out".

Economics trumps Virtue. 

 

Posted

What about them ? Several of those states haven't executed anybody for many decades despite having capital punishment. Others have a moratorium on executions. Canada was way behind the others that never had capital punishment or abolished it a long time ago. So much for going "all out".

And so what happened a littel while ago in Oklahoma?

Posted (edited)

Also the defacto abolishment of the death penalty in Canada occured in '63.

Still carried on the books for DND until 1998 (National Defense Act). That was only 16 years ago.

Edited by bush_cheney2004

Economics trumps Virtue. 

 

Posted

Still carried on the books for DND until 1998. That was only 16 years ago.

I'm not sure what wheaties box you pretend you get your facts from, but anyway. I don't really care if you like to kill each other down there. Whether it be by the gallows, or by brain dead NRA rules. When the last American kills the second to last American, he can give us a call and we'll head on down and clean the place up.

Posted

I'm not sure what wheaties box you pretend you get your facts from, but anyway. I don't really care if you like to kill each other down there. Whether it be by the gallows, or by brain dead NRA rules. When the last American kills the second to last American, he can give us a call and we'll head on down and clean the place up.

Off topic....your typical anti-American rant. There will always be more Americans than Canadians....always have been.

Economics trumps Virtue. 

 

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