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Originally Posted by JavaBlack";p="
I'm against the death penalty in all cases except when it is possible for the person, even imprisoned in solitary confinement, to cause further damage. This is generally only possible with dictators and certain high-level terrorists.
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Are you going to vote "wartime emergencies only"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JavaBlack";p="
I also think anyone who is going to be imprisoned for life without any chance of parole should be allowed to opt for the death penalty.
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If, in general, you don't believe in the death penalty, there could be a problem with that. The state might "encourage" euthanasia to save money and so create a de facto death penalty.
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Originally Posted by The12thMan";p="
Murder, attempted murder...
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I agree that attempted murder should be considered just as evil as murder, since the intent is the same. Therefore, if I believed in executing murderers, I would believe in executing attempted murderers at least in principle. There is a problem, though. Dead is dead, and that someone was murdered is relatively easy to establish. However, attempted murder is harder to prove. If someone goes after another person with a gun, knife, ax or some other obviously lethal weapon, then it is clearly a case of attempted murder.
However, the line between felony assault and attempted murder is a blurry one. If one person goes after another with a pipe, is that attempted murder? What about a baseball bat? Does it depend on how physically resilient the would-be victim is? That is why, I believe, murder is distinguished from attempted murder. The potential variables in establishing that murder was the intent when no one died are innumerable.