Execution takes 2 hours, 10 tries, condemned man given bathroom break in the middle

[FunnyDuddies 6]

Actually, that's a good point. I guess it's probably more accurate for me to say that I'm against the death penalty except in the case of fundamentalist Christians.

You would have someone killed based on their religion?

[susannah 2]

Ohio lethal injection takes 2 hours, 10 tries - CNN.com

I am so proud to stand with the few countries left, like China, North Korea, Syria and Saudi Arabia, that still allow the death penalty.

:note2: I'm proud to be an American, :note2:where at least I know we can still execute people :note2: we may be totally incompetent at doing it :note2: but who cares, no one can stop us anyway :note2: because we're American :note2: and our flag has stripes on it :note2: and we let people go to the bathroom if it takes too long :note2: :note2: :note2:

Love that ditty!:biggrin1: Capital punishment was abolished in Australia in 1973, and I believe the last execution by hanging here was in 1967.

Let these people do hard labour( Yes that is spelt right, in Australian English)

if they are guilty. The problem with execution is that some innocent people have been fried etc.

Susannah

[FunnyDuddies 6]

i believe in the care of the greater good. focusing on one or two individuals who lose their life because they have been wrongly prosecuted should not mean that those who were rightly prosecuted should continue to live.

I am actually torn on this argument quite a bit...but i will say that not one innocent person should determine the fate of many many guilty people. what does that say for all of the innocents that the guilty people killed? that their lives are not as important?

[marjon9 6]

You would have someone killed based on their religion?

Yes, but only fundamentalist Christians

[Alexandra 55]

To me the issue is not about the condemned individual, who probably deserves what he gets most of the time. To me the issue relates to my own human dignity, and what acts I'm willing to commit, or allow others to commit in my name. Capital punishment is simply beneath my dignity, especially when there is no benefit of any kind to the victim or potential future victim. There isn't even a cost savings compared to keeping someone in prison. And if you want to really torture the hell out someone and make them pay, life in prison is far worse than a quick death. So there is simply no reason to justify debasing ourselves to that degree, as the people of most other nations have concluded..

This is brilliantly put, Mark, thank you.

There is never any downside to taking the high road, and MANY a downside to the "eye for an eye" way of doing things. It's not civilized, period. It's totally bewildering to me that the fact of US being in the company of the countries listed in the OP (China, North Korea, Syria and Saudi Arabia) hasn't swayed anyone's opinion of this practice here at home. We say they're not civilized, that we have some moral high ground, yet we copy one of the most barbaric practices of theirs and call it "justice." Unbelievable.

I just pray that sometime in my or my childrens' lifetime the dawn will come, and the US will actually walk the walk of the moral. The truly moral, not the senseless "morality" that comes from cherry-picked rules in ancient books.

[musicalmomma 1]

Actually, that's a good point. I guess it's probably more accurate for me to say that I'm against the death penalty except in the case of fundamentalist Christians.

One word for this...hypocrite.

[musicalmomma 1]

Yes, but only fundamentalist Christians

Thanks for proving that christians ARE in fact persecuted. So you would kill christians just because they don't agree with you and follow the teachings of the bible, but would give life in prison to say...sadaam huessein?????? what a hypocrite...

[Carlene 12]

One of the biggest problems with capital punishment, from my point of view, is the oops factor....those instances wherein men/women are executed, then later determined to be not guilty. And I realize it is probably a small percentage....still, if it were YOU, that wouldn't matter, would it? One fatal error is one too many, IMHO.

[FunnyDuddies 6]

You would have someone killed based on their religion?

Yes, but only fundamentalist Christians

mark, i don't know whether you are kidding or not. You have left a lot open here on the board over your many posts to make me think you might not be kidding. But I have to say that to even kid around and say that you are in favor if killing christians has to be one of the lowest, most crude jokes I have ever heard. If anyone was to make a joke that they are not for killing unless it was jews, or blacks, or muslims, (or even dogs!!!) people would be down your throat. Yet it is completely ok to say this... Are there only two of us on this board that is OUTRAGED by this response???

[Carlene 12]

"Case in point, Texas-based Lockhart Technologies closed its Austin plant and fired some 150 workers who constructed circuit boards because it could relocate those jobs to a Wackenhut-run prison where detainees did the work for minimum wage."

and it takes work away from our home town boys and girls too. who have families to support. I think that prisoner work is good, but I am one of those that does not believe it should be paid work. and it should be serious manual labor. digging ditches, picking fruit and planting trees.

Texas may be unique, in that it has a prison system that is almost self-supporting. We have prison farms that grow most of the food served to state prisoners. The prisoners used to grow the cotton that was, in turn, used to make their clothing. In addition, the state contracts for all kinds of "outside" work. About 20 years ago I lived in a small town in East Texas and one summer a crew of convicts came and removed all the seats from the high school auditorium, took them to Huntsville and refinished them, then brought the seats back and reinstalled them - looking brand new.

I can assure you that being a resident of the Texas Dept of Corrections is no vacation. I used to be involved in a prison ministry and have visited "the walls" in Huntsville - the old, original state prison. First of all, there is no AC...in Texas. Secondly, it is dismal personified. And finally, there are no big screen TVs and only rudimentary health care. A prisoner with an abscessed tooth is given antibiotics and then, a week or so later, scheduled for an extraction. Pain killers are rarely prescribed - for anything.

Now federal prisons are a whole other ballgame. They are much nicer, and much more likely to be full of white collar Yuppies who crossed a line somewhere. So if you are thinking of crime as a free ride at the taxpayers expense, go for the gusto.....commit a federal offense.

[Carlene 12]

mark, i don't know whether you are kidding or not. You have left a lot open here on the board over your many posts to make me think you might not be kidding. But I have to say that to even kid around and say that you are in favor if killing christians has to be one of the lowest, most crude jokes I have ever heard. If anyone was to make a joke that they are not for killing unless it was jews, or blacks, or muslims, (or even dogs!!!) people would be down your throat. Yet it is completely ok to say this... Are there only two of us on this board that is OUTRAGED by this response???

He's just yanking your chain, Funny D.

[FunnyDuddies 6]

LOL Carlene, actually Texas is held in the highest regard for me. I think they do things right, by all means. I love that they self support, and that they really don't give any luxuries to the prisoners. Sadly this is not the case across the country. But Texas can sure be a fine example, and one that I hope the rest of the country will soon follow.

I heard at one point that some prisons in Texas were so good at being self sufficient they had money left to give back to the community. Have you heard anything like this? Have you heard if this is true, and if so, what did they give the money back to? Schooling?

[FunnyDuddies 6]

You would have someone killed based on their religion?

He's just yanking your chain, Funny D.

Whether he is or not, it is not an appropriate joke, and there would be an outcry if it were any other group. Why must we stand by and allow people to continually bash christians? Why is it so easy and given? I am tired of people thinking it is ok to step all over me because I am a Christian. I deserve the same rights and respect as any other group, sect, race, creed and color. Just because I am a Christian does not mean anyone should get a free ticket to make such heinous comments.

[Carlene 12]

I heard at one point that some prisons in Texas were so good at being self sufficient they had money left to give back to the community. Have you heard anything like this? Have you heard if this is true, and if so, what did they give the money back to? Schooling?

I don't know, but I would hope that any surplus money generated by the labor of convicts would go toward educating the prisoners themselves. I really think that is the most effective way to reduce recidivism.

I had a Sociology instructor in college who taught primarily criminal justice courses, so we got a huge dose of that with our Sociology curriculum. He always emphasized that crime is a young man's game and given a few years and a decent education, most prisoners are perfectly capable of becoming model citizens. I think he was 100% right.

When I was very young, I dated a boy whose father drank, and whose mother died suddenly when he was in high school. He knocked around for a few years, then ended up in trouble with the law (for forgery). He served two years in a state prison, where he learned sheet metal fabrication. After he was released, he got a job and has worked there for the last 35 years. In a way, prison was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Prison is not all about punishment....it is (or should be) equally concerned with rehabilitation.

[gadgetlady 4]

I'm against the death penalty except in the case of fundamentalist Christians.

Why am I not surprised -- and why am I not surprised that no one but Christians are calling him on this?

Imagine: "I'm against the death penalty except in the case of Jews."

"I'm against the death penalty except in the case of blacks."

I can practically hear the gasping in the room. But "I'm against the death penalty except in the case of fundamentalist Christians"? Pin drop.