Texas Bans Execution Last Meals

[billc]

Makalakumu, are you against the death penalty for everyone, including john wayne gacy and Adolf eichman, or just for the ones where there isn't complete evidence of guilt?

 

[Makalakumu]

Makalakumu, are you against the death penalty for everyone, including john wayne gacy and Adolf eichman, or just for the ones where there isn't complete evidence of guilt?

I'm against it for everyone. I'll try to get into it more later...

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Death penalty, writ large discussion is thataway. --------->

As for the last meal thing, I agree with whoever said it above that the decision is being made in reaction to a stunt, which is probably the worst way to make any decision (other than drunk and/or horny, of course).

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Why give them a last meal of any kind? It's not like they're going to get a chance to digest it.

 

[elder999]

Why give them a last meal of any kind? It's not like they're going to get a chance to digest it.

Yeah, and everyone really enjoys digesting a meal most of all-never mind the tasting and eating.....

I mean, I get you, it's a waste of food, but it's like I said upthread-this has traditionally been done so that the people responsible for the execution can hang onto their humanity. It's not for the prisoner at all............


.........which explains why this is happening in Texas, of course.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Yeah, and everyone really enjoys digesting a meal most of all-never mind the tasting and eating.....

I mean, I get you, it's a waste of food, but it's like I said upthread-this has traditionally been done so that the people responsible for the execution can hang onto their humanity. It's not for the prisoner at all............


.........which explains why this is happening in Texas, of course.

Then why not get him a hooker?

 

[Makalakumu]

Then why not get him a hooker?

That's a hell of an idea! LOL!

 

[elder999]

Then why not get him a hooker?

For the same reason that he doesn't get a shot of heroin or a joint: because it's illegal.

 

[hongkongfooey]

I wonder what the last meal was for those murdered by the scum on death row?

 

[Twin Fist]

good question

 

[Buka]

Proving people are monsters is the issue. It's just an opinion.

Also, when you give the State the power to take life and combine it with the above, the stage is set for terror.

I do see your point. However, "terror" is real. It's what these monsters do. I'm not talking about ordinary crime here, I'm talking pure horror. The issue of monsters is real. I could copy many of the case files I have, but I wouldn't blame anyone from banning me from this forum for posting pure, obscene horror if I did so. What we do is take these monsters and spend millions of dollars on them, not on their victims or victims families, not on the poor and needy, but on them. We threaten our own species but our unwillingness to protect it.

 

[Makalakumu]

I do see your point. However, "terror" is real. It's what these monsters do. I'm not talking about ordinary crime here, I'm talking pure horror. The issue of monsters is real. I could copy many of the case files I have, but I wouldn't blame anyone from banning me from this forum for posting pure, obscene horror if I did so. What we do is take these monsters and spend millions of dollars on them, not on their victims or victims families, not on the poor and needy, but on them. We threaten our own species but our unwillingness to protect it.

True. We spend way too much money, but not for the reasons that most people think. At every step in the creation of a "monster" there was an abrogation of personal responsibility. Killing the "monster" is an abrogation of personal responsibility.

In my moral universe, The Non-Aggression Principle is violated by the Death Penalty. In a free society we probably wouldn't kill people who have taken life unless it was directly in self defense.

 

[granfire]

True. We spend way too much money, but not for the reasons that most people think. At every step in the creation of a "monster" there was an abrogation of personal responsibility. Killing the "monster" is an abrogation of personal responsibility.

In my moral universe, The Non-Aggression Principle is violated by the Death Penalty. In a free society we probably wouldn't kill people who have taken life unless it was directly in self defense.

Interesting thought.
However, considering the few things I have heard from my mom in over three years of dinner table conversation (she was head of the nursing staff at a major German mental facility and a front runner in her field) some people are just not wired right.
They have the nurturing and the 'nature' to be good people and still turn out evil. And I think your thought model does not account for sociopaths. Channeled in 'positive' directions, these people become CEOs and political leaders 9since they can tell people what they want to hear all while sounding sincere. Or they make up the population of serial killers.

There are some really disturbed people out there....a dog with similar disposition would be put down ASAP.

There is a time for everything, preserving life and taking life.

 

[Makalakumu]

Who am I to judge when a human needs to be put down like a dog? I know broken brains exist and I know that various agents in society break brains. At some point these brains cannot be fixed. What's wrong with a mental institution, or voluntary suicide? Does a human with a broken brain have a right to life?

Sent from my Eris using Tapatalk

 

[NSRTKD]

i guess that depends on the manner in which it is broken... does it take away more lives to have it exist than it takes away to destroy it? Who is qualified to determine the value of one versus many? Is each life equal to each other life?How I wish I could glimpse, in four hundred years, what people then will say of these things happening now.

 

[Makalakumu]

i guess that depends on the manner in which it is broken... does it take away more lives to have it exist than it takes away to destroy it? Who is qualified to determine the value of one versus many? Is each life equal to each other life?How I wish I could glimpse, in four hundred years, what people then will say of these things happening now.

I wish I could glimpse this as well.

Btw - do you know what kind of ethics you are suggesting?

 

[NSRTKD]

with which, the question of how a human brain is broken or looking into the future? That was not, once again, a terribly decidedly opinionated post.

 

[granfire]

Who am I to judge when a human needs to be put down like a dog? I know broken brains exist and I know that various agents in society break brains. At some point these brains cannot be fixed. What's wrong with a mental institution, or voluntary suicide? Does a human with a broken brain have a right to life?

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(I meant to say 3 decades, not years)

And yes, the hospital my mom worked at had a forensic ward. Mental institutions only recently became a humane place to warehouse those who can't function in public.
Physical abuse was the norm, for parts even after medications made it easier to control issues that often could turn dangerous. Mental health is not for the faint of heart.

And while just being retarded in mental development is no reason to kill a person, we are not talking about them.
We are talking about a few individuals who did a great deal of damage to society and if turned lose again will repeat their actions.

Voluntary suicide? I am not sure where that fits in here. I mean, voluntary like Rommel?


But i thought this started out as a debate about the last meal.

Personally I see it as an act of mercy. A few years back this guy asked for spagettios. They fixed him some noodle dinner. I mean, come on, a dollar can of noodles wasn't in the budget?!
I do agree however, that the 200 course meal as in the heart of the thread is ridiculous.

 

[WC_lun]

I don't have a problem with offering a condemned man his favorite meal before he is killed. It is an act of compassion. Yes, I realize that he is on death row for an act that is definitely not compassionate, but we are not the same as he is, are we? We can afford to let him have a certain food as his last meal. Now if the condemned is taking advantage of it then common sense would say to not let this happen either.

 

[NSRTKD]

Said far more gracefully than I could have... thanks, Gran...