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Would you support the reintroduction of the death penalty?

Ahhhh for forks sake!

Lately I'm reading news threads on Facebook and more and more I'm seeing remarks such as "hang him", "kill him", "burn him". I thought we were a modern society where no one would yearn for the return of the gallows.

Is it something you'd welcome? Would you like to see the gallows room reintroduced in Ireland?

I for one, would NOT. There's too high a chance of a wrongful conviction or a person lying in court.

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Paddy Cow

In theory I think there are people who have committed crimes so heinous that I wouldn't shed a tear if they were sentenced to death. However, in practice I don't believe in it. One innocent person sentenced to death is one too many. A pardon granted posthumously does fcuk all to rectify that level of miscarriage of justice.

I would support tougher sentences though. I was reading a case in the UK yesterday about a guy who got sentenced to 13 yrs for murdering a woman and he got released in half that. Sentences like that are a joke.

suicide_circus

Hitman3000 wrote: »

This is the fourth thread I have seen today where the topic of the thread had nothing to do with water charges but yet they still were referenced. The Irish version of Godwins Law methinks.

No way, you won't pay

Capt'n Midnight

Where the option for
Yes, I'd be the executioner myself , on the condition that I'd be executed myself if new evidence proves the person I killed was innocent all along.

emeraldwinter

Has the republic ever had the death penalty ?

Get Real

emeraldwinter wrote: »

Has the republic ever had the death penalty ?

Up until 1990 it was still in law yes. The last person to be sentenced to death was in 1985. However this sentence was commuted to a prison sentence as the death penalty was abolished in 1990.

As far as I'm aware (open to correction on this) the last person to be executed was in 1954. Michael Manning. (He raped and murdered a 65 year old woman and admitted to doing it saying he didn't know what had come over him )

[Deleted User]

Hitman3000 wrote: »

This is the fourth thread I have seen today where the topic of the thread had nothing to do with water charges but yet they still were referenced. The Irish version of Godwins Law methinks.

Nah our version when it comes to law and order is Garlic Man.

Hitman3000

suicide_circus wrote:

No way, you won't pay

Taxs my off topic friend. I pay loads.

murpho999

No.

A civilised country should not be in the business of killing people.

Our society is supposed to be better than that and raise above mob rule.

Delighted that Irish people voted this down by 62% to 38% in 2002 and that should be the end of it.

There is no need for it, does not act as a deterrent and mistakes cannot be rectified.

Also, posters having a go at Ireland, saying that could not implement it or comparing it to Irish Water are really talking rubbish.

It would be a sentence carried out as a part of the justice system like jail and is not just an administration issue.

kumate_champ07

yes, but only up to 12 weeks

368100

Its an easy way out, the only people that will suffer are the family of the prisoner.

For the offences that might warrant a death penalty its only just that they have to live with their crime on their conscience (assuming they have one)

Hitman3000

kumate_champ07 wrote:

yes, but only up to 12 weeks

Oh ffs, is there not enough threads dedicated to that topic?

blanch152

Get Real wrote: »

Up until 1990 it was still in law yes. The last person to be sentenced to death was in 1985. However this sentence was commuted to a prison sentence as the death penalty was abolished in 1990.

As far as I'm aware (open to correction on this) the last person to be executed was in 1954. Michael Manning. (He raped and murdered a 65 year old woman and admitted to doing it saying he didn't know what had come over him )

Nowadays he would have been assessed as to his mental state, and may have ended up in Dundrum for the rest of his life.

Road-Hog

Against death penalty, a life sentence meaning ‘life’ i.e staying in jail until you die is as much time if not more torturous for the criminals than putting them out of their misery via lethal injection, firing squad, guilotine or noose around the neck....?

[Deleted User]

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

yes, but only up to 12 weeks

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Oh ffs, is there not enough threads dedicated to that topic?

I found that very clever actually!

salmocab

I wouldn’t but that said there are criminals that deserve it, I wouldn’t trust any state to make those decisions though. There should certainly be tougher sentences for any type of violent crime.

Road-Hog

Omackeral wrote: »

I found that very clever actually!

Yer man graham Dwyer would come to mind as someone you would like wiped away via the death penalty but keeping such an abomination of a human being behind bars until he dies is probably more torturous for him...?

Gorgeousgeorge

Dr_serious2 wrote: »

There was a time when I had sympathy for the idea but not anymore.

I have no sympathy for certain criminals, particularly murderers of women, children or the elderly and it's not on moral grounds that I wouldn't want them executed.

However I don't trust the government, or the judiciary, to decide who lives or dies. Look at what a mess they have made of things over the years. The Garda scandals would erode your confidence too.

Anyone who still thinks the death penalty is a good idea should read about Harry Gleeson.

Poor man was set up. And only recently was his sentence overturned i think.

ligerdub

I'm against the death penalty in almost every instance.

However, I do think there are elements of very rare exceptions where the guilty party is obvious, the crime is of extreme severity, and particularly when the situation in the location is one of an serious emergency, bordering on a warlike state. There are also very rare examples where people are evil almost beyond belief. In summary, if the person is an enemy of the state and is an active danger to people at large then I believe there is a case for them to be executed. There is a tipping point in my opinion where a person can become such an extreme danger that it almost becomes a less damaging act to execute the guilty party.

There are many examples in history (not in this country) where a person has an almost fundamental inability to stop their urge to harm others or exploit a lack of defences for their own personal gain at the severe cost of others. For clarity, I wouldn't ever recommend such a punishment for vindictive or "let 'em fry" type gore tactics, purely from a sad almost reluctance to do so for public safety reasons. It would also be an extremely rare recommendation, in this country maybe countable on one hand over the last 60 years.

I'm not talking about the Harry Gleeson's here, I'm talking more along the lines of the Tim McVeigh, Peter Sutcliffe, Fred West, Ted Bundy, Hitler. These are obviously sick, disturbed individuals guilty of almost incomparable crimes, and there was almost nothing their victims could have done to save themselves. It's an entirely different situation to somebody of questionable guilt and who might have committed a crime in anger and to a very specific person as a result (I'm not defending that, but it doesn't suggest they are a danger to anybody else). These severely dangerous guys are a severe danger to others so long as they are alive, especially so when the people involved have a habit of breaking out of prison.

It always goes back to the United States on pretty much anything like this, but the US executes a minuscule amount of people compared to China. They also execute fewer people per capita than Iran (significantly so) and Saudi Arabia. Iran and Saudi Arabia have a lower murder rate per capita than the United States. The United States isn't within an asses roar of being among the highest per capita murder rate nations in the world, they are comfortably middle of the road in that regard. The biggest proponent of capital punishment in the world is China, and their murder rate is one of the lowest in the world. There seems no pattern between capital punishment and the homicide rate, so people looking to use it as an example of a deterrent or otherwise to committing serious crime appears unreasonable. That being said, a deterrent is not the only reason for its existence.

The examples of highly dangerous people seem (and indeed are) extremely unlikely in a country such as Ireland, but it is not beyond comprehension. We have one of the lowest rates of murder per capita for any country on the planet, so whatever we are doing I'm grateful we don't seem to have a pressing need to solve a homicide problem.

jaxxx

When I was younger, less wiser and more attractive, I did used to believe in the death penalty. But now I don't. And that is because of one reason and one reason only: death is not a punishment.

Justice should be about punishment. I say should be because in reality justice is all but extinct with crooked judges, police, etc but condemning someone to die is letting them off easy. Death is an eventuality that happens to everything. It is the one thing that is shared by all forms of life. But not only life. Stars die. Planets die. Yet in that, comes the true meaning of punishment... time. Time is both infinite and finite. Infinite in terms of the universe, finite in terms of an individual. As a form of life, the only true thing we possess is time.

And from that comes the one true form of punishment. Forcing someone to spend their limited time behind the confines of a prison is that true punishment. Taking away what limited time they possess, where is the punishment in that? But controlling where and how their time is spent, that is the true punishment. Letting them spend the remainder of their lives behind walls, taking away their freedom, taking away the simple pleasures in life.

That is why I no longer believe in the death penalty and why it should be banned worldwide. Because it is not a punishment. It is an easy way out.

freshpopcorn

No!
The past week confirmed it for me with people online saying they'd send somebody to prison when there was no evidence if they were on a jury.

Chris_Heilong

Sure, removing someone from society that is too vile to exist so the rest of us are safer sounds good to me, if you serial rape and murder you are no longer human as far as I am concerned.

Hitman3000

freshpopcorn wrote:

No! The past week confirmed it for me with people online saying they'd send somebody to prison when there was no evidence if they were on a jury.

Saw one clown on FB say she would happily see 4 innocent men go to prison rather than see one rapist go free. Imagine if the death penalty existed for rape,

jaxxx

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Saw one clown on FB say she would happily see 4 innocent men go to prison rather than see one rapist go free. Imagine if the death penalty existed for rape,

Oh sweet jesus... There's a word to describe that clown: feminazi.

endacl

Johnnycanyon wrote: »

I posted earlier that capital punishment was barbaric and should never be allowed, and I firmly believe this..But imagine if one of your family was murdered in a most horrendous fashion would you like to see the perpetrator executed??

Of course. And that’s why families don’t sit in judgement.

[Deleted User]

when it comes to someone harming my child, my answer would be a strong yes.

I would never be able to rest knowing if someone raped and/or killed my child, they would be living, and breathing in a cell, feeling a little bored, for a few years.

It wouldn't be enough for me

ThinkProgress

If the two options are, spend the rest of my natural life behind bars... or be executed? I'll take execution please!

There are some very dangerous people in this world, that have committed horrible crimes. Everybody knows that they can never be released back into society. If they were an animal, they would be swiftly destroyed... and I think that is the more humane thing to do!

So we actually treat dangerous / bad animals in a more humane way than people in many instances. Keeping someone locked in a cage for the rest of their life, with no realistic chance of release... I consider that to be a bit sadistic! Nature can be cruel, but even animals would never do this to each other!

[Deleted User]

jaxxx wrote: »

When I was younger, less wiser and more attractive, I did used to believe in the death penalty. But now I don't. And that is because of one reason and one reason only: death is not a punishment.

That's interesting because as I get older, I become more in favor of the death penalty under certain circumstances.

While I know that the vast majority of people are against the death penalty, I do see some value having it as an option for repeat violent offenders. There should be a point where we say, enough is enough.

And then, life imprisonment for the vast majority of other crimes, but actual life imprisonment with basic facilities.

Yes. Yes. America has shown that the death penalty does't work. But then America has also shown that all forms of incarceration don't work either. Doesn't mean we can't learn from their system and improve on it.

whisky_galore

Face it lads, it's gone for good and it's not coming back to this country. Good riddance.

There's more hope of cloning unicorns.

artanevilla

Absolutely not, anyone who says otherwise should be shot.

[Deleted User]

whisky_galore wrote: »

Face it lads, it's gone for good and it's not coming back to this country. Good riddance.

There's more hope of cloning unicorns.

No harm in discussing it though.

And I wouldn't count it gone forever. It's not as if crime is diminishing to even close to Utopian standards, and while there's all this support for incarceration, it's not terribly successful either . Who is to say what will be desired in twenty or thirty years time if Europe goes the same way as the American major cities for violent crime.