MuRiEl
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posted on April 29, 2001 06:49:34 AM
Timothy McVeigh will be executed by lethal injection on May 16th in Terre Haute, IN for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
What are your thoughts on the death penalty in this case, and the death penalty in general?
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sadie999
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posted on April 29, 2001 06:59:26 AM
Theoretically, I believe in the death penalty.
In reality, we live in a culture where the rich get the best defense, and the poor get the worst. Therefore, this penalty gets meted out unfairly.
Also, those that dish out this penalty are governed by politics. So when Americans are feeling scared and are pro-death penalty, governors know it's good for their careers to not intervene even in iffy cases.
As to McVeigh: it's a shame they can't kill him more than once.
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stusi
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posted on April 29, 2001 08:15:01 AM
Timothy McVeigh is a mass murderer. Perhaps the death penalty is too good for him. How about a sentence of torture for life? Isn't this what he perpetrated on the families of those killed in the bombing?
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spazmodeus
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posted on April 29, 2001 08:15:06 AM
Lethal injection is a joke. A humane way of killing? Come on. If we're going to kill him, kill him good. Make it hurt.
And as much as I would like to see his execution via TV or webcast or whatever, I think it's better to deprive him of the audience he wants so badly. He shouldn't get an ounce of satisfaction from this.
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mint4you
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posted on April 29, 2001 09:25:50 AM
[ edited by mint4you on Apr 30, 2001 06:26 PM ]
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gravid
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posted on April 29, 2001 09:51:06 AM
When he killed all those people he was avanging the Waco people. What is the cost going to be when someone avenges him?
Are we going to go back and forth endlessly like the Isrealis and Palestinians?
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stusi
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posted on April 29, 2001 10:14:21 AM
gravid- do you think that fear of revenge is a good enough reason not to execute him? aren't you then playing into the hands of the fringe elements of society? what exactly is the analogy to a religious/territorial war?
[ edited by stusi on Apr 29, 2001 10:15 AM ]
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jamesoblivion
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posted on April 29, 2001 10:32:41 AM
His case is as good an argument for the death penalty as you're ever likely to see. Unfortunately his case also demonstrates the impossibility of meting out justice as he has only one life to be executed for 168 he took.
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Linda_K
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posted on April 29, 2001 11:11:51 AM
In general, I do support the death penalty, and especially in this case. But I do wish they had decided to not allow him to make any statements to those there to witness his death. To me, it just gives him another chance to cause more hurt to the people and families he's already injured enough.
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MrsSantaClaus
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posted on April 29, 2001 11:41:36 AM
I really like the "room with Bubba" idea. He deserves that.
Maybe they should make his execution a pay per view event and give all of the money to his victim's families. At least then his death would amount to something.
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mrpotatoheadd
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posted on April 29, 2001 12:16:44 PM
They should move him to the prison they were keeping Jeffrey Dahmer in.
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toke
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posted on April 29, 2001 12:26:09 PM
mrpotatoheadd...
 You bet. At least, that must have hurt some.
And I agree with Linda K, as well. A little duct tape would be a good idea. He's getting far too much pleasure shooting off his mouth. I think he should be denied all pleasures and satisfactions possible.
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jamesoblivion
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posted on April 29, 2001 12:30:34 PM
We need to realize that there is no legal mechanism in place to deny him any rights that a condemned man on death row has. This isn't a whine about the "rights" of criminals at the expense of their victims who were most assuredly denied a fundemental right of their own, but a reality check. The fact is McVeigh can say anything he likes. Additionally, he was sentenced to die and that is what will happen to him whether it "plays into his hands" or not.
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MuRiEl
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posted on April 29, 2001 12:49:55 PM
I used to work in the Criminal Division of Common Pleas Court, and we used to say "The punishment should fit the crime". (Not that we coined that phrase, but we all believed it.) I think McVeigh needs to be blown up.
In lieu of that, a cell with Bubba gets my vote, too. He's getting off way too easy.
Before the death penalty was repealed in Ohio in the early 80's - later to be reinstated - I had to type up the Death Warrants for defendants convicted of Aggravated Murder with Specifications (as it was called). I worked with a lady who believed in the death penalty, but wouldn't type the Warrants. She made me do it. I never figured that out.
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HEPburn
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posted on April 29, 2001 12:52:32 PM
I think we should give him to the Iranians. Or, borrow some of their methods of punishment. Better yet, hang him. And DONT pull on the rope for good measure to make a clean break. Let him dangle a bit.
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toke
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posted on April 29, 2001 12:53:22 PM
Hi James...
I think we all know that. We're (at least, I'm) just expressing our druthers...
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mint4you
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posted on April 29, 2001 01:28:38 PM
[ edited by mint4you on Apr 30, 2001 06:26 PM ]
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julesY
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posted on April 29, 2001 02:19:34 PM
Opposed, vehemently, be it McVeigh or any other death row inmate.
And no, I don't have empathy for convicted criminals (unless they're innocent as was found with so many death row inmates in Illinois); I simply don't think our government should be in the business of killing its citizens. It's too final an act, with entirely too much room for mistakes to be made.
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reamond
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posted on April 29, 2001 02:37:57 PM
The death penalty is definitely part of the social contract.
However we are unable to administer it fairly or justly.
McVeigh deserves it, but so do the govt officials at Ruby Ridge, and Waco.
Due to the recent supreme court ruling, any of us can now be arrested and placed in jail for a minor act punishable on the books by only a fine. This jailing for minor offenses punishable by only a fine is now considered constitutional. The case was a woman and her children in Texas who didn't have their seat belts on. No resisting, no fleeing, just pulled over for a seatbelt violation punishable by a fine. She was handcuffed and taken to jail. Didn't our ancestors fight a revolution to prevent these kinds of things ? The court said it is at the descretion of the cop whether to place you in jail for a non-jail offense. This is an act of dictatorship.
There is something terribly wrong going on with our govt, Federal, state and local. Maybe McVeigh is the canary in the coal mine.
We won't be the first republic that ended up with a dictatorship, it happened to the Roman Empire.
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krs
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posted on April 29, 2001 02:56:28 PM
France might be a better example.
There are some very strange people posting here. So, finally, McVeigh is arousing your bloodlust, eh? The severity of his crime has brought out this desire to hurt, to maim, to torture?
You start somewhere, and it gets a little easier each time. Will the next heinious criminal bring out a call for a coliseum spectacle of death by dismemberment or by lions? No? Not yet?
It's just this one time, because of those children? This murder is worse than others, and this guy is talking, and wanting to end it? How could he have the nerve to do that? Doesn't it just frost your cookies? Don't you just want to make him scream and plead for YOUR mercy?
It may be that the desire to shut him up finally, even before his death, is rooted somehow in the knowledge that Timothy McVeigh has made a stand for all time at the cost of his life because he sees a threat to the freedom of all of us, and those who would silence him know that they should be standing beside him.
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HJW
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:20:19 PM
It would interest me to know, how many of you
in favor of the death penalty and tearing people asunder are compassionate... christians...believers in God and Jesus and all the good words in the Bible that I have
read so much about lately.
How on earth do you reconcile your feelings on this issue with your ethical training...
IF you have any?
The death penalty is barbaric!
and it is justified by NOTHING!!!
I am ashamed to live in a country that still
uses it.
Helen
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toke
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:30:39 PM
Oh, Kenny. Tell it to the families of the dead children. I'm sure they'll see your point.
Shame on you. You go too far.
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HJW
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:33:26 PM
Lil Toke,
If you believe in the death penalty, the
SHAME is on you.
Helen
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SaraAW
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:36:01 PM
OK folks, Enough
Let's address the topic, not each other.
Thanks,
Sara
[email protected]
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jamesoblivion
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:40:18 PM
Genesis 9:6, if you are asking for Biblical precedent (but I don't really think you were).
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toke
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:40:50 PM
Oh, yes. Absolutely. I think the death penalty is too seldom applied. For instance...the woman who drowned her children in the car...and now is having some kind of weird affair in prison...yep. I think she needs to die. In fact, I think her death should approximate the time it took for her children to drown. Only fair...no?
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heavensangel
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:41:13 PM
It may be that the desire to shut him up finally, even before his death, is rooted somehow in the knowledge that Timothy McVeigh has made a stand for all time at the cost of his life because he sees a threat to the freedom of all of us, and those who would silence him know that they should be standing beside him.
Standing by him? A sad, sad thought. Many ways of fighting for freedom without resorting to murder. Timothy McVeigh's action was not a stand for freedom, but an act of cowardice. Nothing more.
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hcross
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:41:43 PM
Helen,
I find it interesting that you feel so strongly about the death penalty being wrong, but yet, you feel abortion is fine. Where is the logic in that? Heather
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krs
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:45:25 PM
"Many ways of fighting for freedom without resorting to murder"
Like, at the polls?
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reamond
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posted on April 29, 2001 03:55:43 PM
The crime that McVeigh commited is rife with emotion because of the innocents killed.
However, we should strip the issues from the emotional elements.
There have been acts such as McVeigh's throughout history in which innocents have been killed, including Waco and Ruby Ridge.
But I saw few people screaming for the executuion of the Feds involved in either Waco or Ruby Ridge.
Remember, if you want revenge rather than justice, always did two graves.
I find the spirit of vengence by the victims disturbing.
McVeigh's motive was revenge for Waco.
As far as the death penalty being a part of the social contract, Schopenhauer said it best- '...in order to enjoy security for life, liberty, and property we must pledege our life, liberty, and property.'
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