I would support the death penalty for all or most murders and possibly other life-wrecking crimes like paedophilia where it not for the possibility of wrongful conviction.

Not quite. There remains the chance that you have executed the wrong man.

In fact, knowing we have an imperfect judicial system, given a sufficient number of convictions we are guaranteed to eventually execute an innocent man.

This is why I cannot accept the death penalty as it implicitly entails an acceptance of State murder.

If, hypothetically, we had a perfect judicial system then I would support the death penalty both as a deterrent and as `fitting punishment`. I`m not sure if that counts as revenge...I think would think of it as justice.

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Marx (G.)

I guess that Saddam is fairly unique in being guilty beyond any rational doubt of crimes I feel are deserving of capital punishment. So I shall shed no tears on the day.... other than perhaps a regret that they did not allow him to live long enough to tell us, in detail, about his former friends in Saudi who bankrolled his invasion of Iran, or his pals in Europe and the States who sold him the chemical weapons, or his close relationship with Donny and the US military who supplied him equipment and maps to better target those chemical weapons.

But I suppose he must have long ago realised that they were never going to allow him to do a `Milosevic`.

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Marx (G.)

Yes quite. Please re-read my quote above.

Even if he is the wrong man, the chances of committing that crime are now zero if he is executed. My statement was technically correct (The best kind of correct)

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Meh, I can live without that information. I'd rather have him dead. If he had lived there would always be the chance he could re-gain power (he has loyalists in Iraq even now). After he is executed, the chances of that happening are reduced to zero. Zero is a nice round number.

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The term `individual` obviously refers to the culprit.

Otherwise the pursuit of the death penalty (or any other punishment) would be rather meaningless, wouldn`t it?

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Marx (G.)

You do realize a felony is any crime you are found guilty of and sentenced to a year or more in prison, right?

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Political compass results: -9.00, -6.97 (council communist, evidently, which is much against totalitarianism and Stalin and such)

"In Soviet Russia, statement quotes YOU!!"

In cases of Treason and Murder.

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"Duty is the most sublime word in our language. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less." - Robert E. Lee

What an archaic method of punishment the death penalty is. It's murder, really. I fail to comprehend how the fact that the victim may happen to be a murderer himself somehow justifies killing.

Anyone read Beccaria's essay "On Crimes and Punishments?"

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"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."~Mark Twain

An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.


Even if the whole world will end up blind and toothless...At least then it's equal, eh?

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"Duty is the most sublime word in our language. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less." - Robert E. Lee

Erm--Not responding to that last bit.

Your first statement proves my point exactly. That's been said, yes, but when? 1200s BC or something? Do you really intend to live by the same laws written in the 13th century BC? If you truely believe so, shall we also throw stones at people who plant two different crops in the same field or wear cloths made of two different kind of thread, burn to death women who have affairs with their in-laws, and be promitted to own slaves bought from neighboring countries?

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"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."~Mark Twain