This was posted by TexasPete, regarding the death penalty:

Regardless of what your studies say about eyewitness testimony I beleive it is some of the best evidence you can have in a trial of facts.

I do beleive that since the death penalty was resumed in the 70's Texas has not executed somebody wrongully convicted.

Even if by some miniscule chance of fate an innocent person were executed God will know his own.

We are human after all and if such a tragic mistake were to happen it would be an honest mistake and not one of malice. The God I know will forgive in such a circumstance.

Even if by some miniscule chance of fate an innocent person were executed God will know his own.

Phew! Now these Christians don't have to worry about innocents who're 'collateral damage' in a war either! What a relief!

Kind of a sick sentiment, but why don't you reply to / refute his arguments where he posted them? Rather than calling for reinforcements by starting a new thread for everyone to crowd around and mock and insult him? Which is obviously what this is.

Munich:

Kind of a sick sentiment, but why don't you reply to / refute his arguments where he posted them? Rather than calling for reinforcements by starting a new thread for everyone to crowd around and mock and insult him? Which is obviously what this is.

I did. But his rationale was so insane and riddled with religious absurdity, it belonged here, too.

I did. But his rationale was so insane and riddled with religious absurdity, it belonged here, too.

Fair enough.

I wonder if TexasPete would say the same thing if it was him or one of his people wrongfully accused on death row. It's lack of empathy that causes people to justify their own intolerance or bad acts.

...he makes a good bottle of hot sauce.

What is the part you find most mind blowing? I am not being purposefully naive, I am not necessarily siding with Texas Pete because I do oppose the death penalty for my own reasons. But I am missing the joke here?

I don’t see the problem here. Seems to me all he is saying is that we will accept a certain amount of potential for mistakes for the benefit of having the death penalty. Now, I’m not for the death penalty, but I understand that if the majority want it, and it has become law, that that is the way it is. We accept certain amount of death all the time for the benefit of having the convenience of the things that cause those deaths. How about automobiles (20,000+), air planes (1-2000) and the medical profession (50-100000)? They cause thousands of unnecessary deaths every year. We accept them without hardly batting an eye. You and I may not see the benefit of the death penalty but apparently a majority, do.

G

You mean like Carla Faye Tucker who testified that she had an orgasm every time she hit her victim with a pick axe? Or Gary Graham who got caught when the 65 year old grandmother he had abducted, raped and then told he was going to sell in the 3rd ward, managed to escape when he fell asleep.

Yeah, they're all innocent. Just ask them, they'll tell you.

since one at least actually capitulated their crime. wow. i guess my mind is now blown too. i can't believe that you people actually are okay with a certain amount of people dying in order to deep the death penalty.

i thought regardless of whether you agreed with the death penalty, that most would agree that it's awful to imprison someone wrongly, much less kill them. and i'm speaking of the truly innocent, here. Even if it's just one, it isn't acceptable to me, because I wouldn't want to be that one. And there but for the grace of g-d, go I...right?

G, i don't "accept" any collateral deaths. There are some we have no choice but to live with. Sure cars have accidents, but we continue to try to find ways to improve them so that they will happen less and less. What are we doing to make sure we don't kill more innocent people? To make sure we don't imprison innocent people? To protect EVERYone in prisons from violence. There are those who want prisons to be hells on earth. I ask why? What's the purpose? To make you feel better? We really need to look at what we hope to solve with our penal system and then we can determine how best to implement it.

I don't really support the death penalty because I really don't trust our government enough to give them the power of life and death over anyone.

BUT, you knew that was coming, I have yet to see them execute someone who didn't sure as hell deserve it.

Gary Graham is a good case in point. That guy was a grade A scumbag and it sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that he killed at least Bobby Lambert and probably quite a few more folks along the way. And yet he is getting letters written for him by folks around the world, rallies held in his honor. Meanwhile, Bernadine Skillern the tough Texas mom who never once wavered in either her testimony or her identification of Graham received regular death threats from Graham supporters.

Sorry but that just ain't right.

The folks that end up on death row ain't nice sweet people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong skin.

I disagree, we just raised the speed limits back up a few years ago guaranteeing a certain number more will die on our roads. My problem is some folks will howl about the ten or twenty needless deaths while ignoring the thousands from a different cause because IT is not THEIR cause. For every one we see protesting the death penalty, we should see thousands protesting raising speed limits or doctor and hospital incompetence. We don’t see any because it’s not what the protesting types subjectively choose to protest about.

Ahh well, pople will be people.

G

those who harm others - that's christianity turning the other cheek.

I saw an interesting documentary speaking of Texas - because of the 70's Supreme Court decision theyr were forced to not execute, and eventually parolled, a large number of people on death row.

(All the ones I saw were, unsurprisingly, black)

It usually wasn't a case of them being innocent - most of them admitted that they were guilty and talked about being 19 years old and killing another 19 year old in a bar fight.

But when they were paroled at age 50 most became model peaceful citizens - the recidivism rate was very small and for minor crimes and not one commited another capital crime

G, I'm not sure whether or not raising the speed limits from 55 mph will necessarily result in more deaths. Non-compliance and having people drive at greater differences of speed seems to me more dangerous. If these things continue to occur at a higher speed, then obviously I would expect more deaths. I'm just not sure.

In the Netherlands for instance, we drive 75 mph on the highway and we only have 750 traffic deaths in a population of 16 million (2005 data). I calculated it, and it comes out to about 14000 deaths in 300 million, while the US saw nearly 43000 deaths (2004 data). France, with a 87,5 mph speed limit does even better. It seems to me to be a combination of enforcement and the laws reflecting the driving patterns of a great majority of people (what they call the 85th-percentile rule).

sorry, I have a bit of a thing for traffic laws.