A Powerful Interview

[Dcdrac]

Another US Ex Prison official states why they are against the death penalty.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26273051

 

[TragicMonkey]

I'm reminded of a line in a Ngaio Marsh mystery when the detective points out that it's easy to feel sorry for murderers when they're facing execution because then they're caught and pathetic. If people saw them as they were when they committed murder, they wouldn't be as sympathetic.

 

[catsmate]

Killing a mentally impaired seventeen year old boy is tragic, regardless of the circumstances.
The HARDtalk episode.

 

[GlennB]

Killing a mentally impaired seventeen year old boy is tragic, regardless of the circumstances.
The HARDtalk episode.

Yeah. It's as well to read or watch the content to understand the horror of CP.

"William Henry Hance was a black man convicted, by a majority white jury, of murdering three women.One black member of the jury later described an atmosphere of racial intimidation. A white juror had said execution would leave "one less ****** to breed".Hance's IQ was so low that some experts believed he was not competent to file a plea. Nonetheless, he was convicted and it fell to Allen Ault to supervise his electrocution."

One less ****** to breed. Nice.

eta: I see the ****** word was auto-censored. That's a tad ridiculous, as seeing the very word itself is pertinent. It was "the N word".

 

[anglolawyer]

The effect on those charged with carrying out the execution is surely the point of that interview and the effect on the rest of us too. I agree, though, that we don't see criminals at their worst and most of us don't have to deal with the harm they cause. We also don't see any of the things that brought them to wherever they had gotten to when they killed or raped.

The DP enormously complicates criminal law and procedure, affects those who have to carry it out and is irreversible, both for the wrongly convicted and those capable of true repentance, restitution and rehabilitation.

 

[Cain]

If we didn't have the death penalty, then what's to stop mentally incapacitated teens from murdering with impunity?

 

[shemp]

If we abolish the death penalty, every city, every town, every hamlet will be filled with cold-blooded killers, murdering our children and depriving them of their precious bodily fluids! Won't somebody think of the children? Kill a murderer for Christ today!

 

[Caper]

I am pro death penalty... But being against it is perfectly defensable and probably more defensable in today's climate.... It's funny though, there are some criminals I read about that I could slowly kill myself.

 

[fuelair]

I am pro death penalty... But being against it is perfectly defensable and probably more defensable in today's climate.... It's funny though, there are some criminals I read about that I could slowly kill myself.

Me too - but many here already know that.

 

[Anerystos]

Quote from Daily Telegraph 13 Jul 1992

Albert Pierrepoint, who has died aged 87, was Britain's leading executioner for 25 years, but later campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty.

During his career he hanged more than 400 people - his record was 17 in a day ('Was my arm stiff').

In 1956 Pierrepoint resigned … and began his campaign against capital punishment.

'If death were a deterrent,' he wrote, 'I might be expected to know. It is I who have faced them at the last, young lads and girls, working men, grandmothers. I have been amazed to see the courage with which they take that walk into the unknown.

 

[shemp]

During his career he hanged more than 400 people - his record was 17 in a day ('Was my arm stiff').

So were they.

 

[Caper]

Also, I feel some people we execute are not the same people they were when they were prosecuted.... I guess everyone changes over time... but some times the changes are so vast that I feel we are killing almost a different person.

 

[catsmate]

Quote from Daily Telegraph 13 Jul 1992

Albert Pierrepoint, who has died aged 87, was Britain's leading executioner for 25 years, but later campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty.

During his career he hanged more than 400 people - his record was 17 in a day ('Was my arm stiff').

In 1956 Pierrepoint resigned … and began his campaign against capital punishment.

'If death were a deterrent,' he wrote, 'I might be expected to know. It is I who have faced them at the last, young lads and girls, working men, grandmothers. I have been amazed to see the courage with which they take that walk into the unknown.

I would say here that Pierrepoint resigned over a dispute over payment for a cancelled execution; his opposition to capital punishment seems to have begun later. There was a re-examination of hanging in the UK in the '50s after the executions of Ruth Ellis, Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, amongst others.

Also, I feel some people we execute are not the same people they were when they were prosecuted.... I guess everyone changes over time... but some times the changes are so vast that I feel we are killing almost a different person.

Christopher Burger, for example. A mentally impaired 17 year old who spend the latter half of his life on death row.

Burger spent 17 years on death row. Dr Ault saw him change. The troubled youth got an education, his brain developed and matured.
Yes, he was guilty of a terrible crime. He was also desperately contrite.
When Dr Ault described Burger's execution to me, his words were powerful, the agonised silences even more so. Two decades have done little to ease Dr Ault's burden of remorse and guilt.
"His last words to me were, 'Please forgive me'.

 

[Anerystos]

I would say here that Pierrepoint resigned over a dispute over payment for a cancelled execution; his opposition to capital punishment seems to have begun later. There was a re-examination of hanging in the UK in the '50s after the executions of Ruth Ellis, Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, amongst others.

It's not entirely clear why Pierrepoint resigned and whether or not his opposition to capital punishment started later. I agree with you though that a strong opposition to it started with the execution of Ruth Ellis. I was six or seven at the time staying in a hotel on a visit to London with my aunt and uncle. He had gone out to get a paper, the headline of which was that she had been hanged. All he said when he came back was, “They did it”.

Perhaps you would care to read George Orwell, A Hanging written in 1931.

 

[Olowkow]

Death penalty is too expensive, not cost effective, too susceptible to error.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Me too - but many here already know that.

I have a feeling you would kill jay walkers if you found out they once were late in feeding their dogs and didn't call their grandma on her birthday. And I mean that as a compliment.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Death penalty is too expensive, not cost effective, too susceptible to error.

this^^

It also lacks the ability to rehabilitate the person, which should be first on the list. The DP is a way to take the easy option, to get revenge and not have to worry about actually working out how to fix the person.

 

[Dr. Keith]

Death penalty is too expensive, not cost effective, too susceptible to error.

this^^

It also lacks the ability to rehabilitate the person, which should be first on the list. The DP is a way to take the easy option, to get revenge and not have to worry about actually working out how to fix the person.

Yep. The low hanging fruit, emotionally speaking.

 

[catsmate]

It's not entirely clear why Pierrepoint resigned and whether or not his opposition to capital punishment started later.

Well he certainly didn't object to hanging Ellis, Evans and Bentley. Or the other 432. I do believe that he accepted that execution was no deterrent and was applied inconsistently subject to political expediency.

I agree with you though that a strong opposition to it started with the execution of Ruth Ellis. I was six or seven at the time staying in a hotel on a visit to London with my aunt and uncle. He had gone out to get a paper, the headline of which was that she had been hanged. All he said when he came back was, “They did it”.

It's interesting but of the three cases most often associated with the suspension and later ending of capital punishment in the UK Ellis is the only one who actually killed anyone. Though her conviction for murder was unjust at best, the grotesque farces of Bentley and Evans were, IMO, far worse.

Perhaps you would care to read George Orwell, A Hanging written in 1931.

I have done so. It's available here. It always reminded me of Barham's poem.

 

[catsmate]

Yep. The low hanging fruit, emotionally speaking.

It also seems to abdicate responsibility for asking why, and doing something, in favour of simple vengeance.