Do you support the Death Penalty?

[Caliga]

I'm opposed to the death penalty on the grounds that I don't trust our justice system... having been on three juries I've trusted it less each time I've served.

If I fully trusted our justice system, I think I would still oppose it in almost all cases though, because I find the idea of the state killing its own citizens troubling.  In the case of treason, I'm either in favor of making an exception there OR am the most opposed to the DP for treason... not entirely sure which.   But since our justice system is deeply flawed when it comes to the application of justice and I don't see that changing anytime soon, I don't really have to think about it anyway.

[Ideologue]

16 people on Languish approved long-term torture.

When does short-term torture become long-term torture?

When does short-term anything become long-term anything?  Two or three years, I suppose, perhaps five.  Certainly at ten.  At that point, you're civilly and spiritually executing them anyway.  At twenty years plus, it's just a death sentence that takes a lifetime to carry out; and a moral difference cannot be honestly found, even for those who (claim to) value human life and care not for the far greater violation of removing liberty.

[Habbaku]

16 people on Languish approved long-term torture.

When does short-term torture become long-term torture?

When does short-term anything become long-term anything?

No clue.  You're the one throwing around terms.

Two or three years, I suppose, perhaps five.  Certainly at ten.  At that point, you're civilly and spiritually executing them anyway.

Might as well just execute anyone and everyone for a crime with a sentence of over ten years, then?  Or should we bring down the punishment on murder to less than ten years?  Less than five?

[Ideologue]

A combination of executions and probations; as punishment needs to be applied, I suggest special taxation rates.

First-degree murder, without any sort of mitigating factors, should result in execution.

[Ed Anger]

Prediction: Seedy, Ed and PDH approve the death penalty applied to Tim, preferably in some vivid fashion such as being thrown from the Tarpeian Rock or stuffed in a woodchipper.

I don't even need to post anymore. 

[Caliga]

I don't even need to post anymore. 

[Ed Anger]

I don't even need to post anymore. 

I'M POPULAR!

[Maximus]

Prediction: Seedy, Ed and PDH approve the death penalty applied to Tim, preferably in some vivid fashion such as being thrown from the Tarpeian Rock or stuffed in a woodchipper.

I don't even need to post anymore. 

Good, then don't

[Capetan Mihali]

"Let's do it."

[Ed Anger]

Prediction: Seedy, Ed and PDH approve the death penalty applied to Tim, preferably in some vivid fashion such as being thrown from the Tarpeian Rock or stuffed in a woodchipper.

I don't even need to post anymore. 

Good, then don't

I've lost the people. 

[Sheilbh]

16 people on Languish approved long-term torture.

I also support well-funded, humane, functioning prison systems

[Ideologue]

16 people on Languish approved long-term torture.

I also support well-funded, humane, functioning prison systems

Actually, serious question--how's austerity affected Britain's correctional institutions?  Have they gotten to eating the soles of their shoes yet, or is it a priority spend in a manner it would/could never be in Amerika?

[Sheilbh]

The budget's been cut by around 16% which isn't disproportionate. I think we still spend between £4.5-5 billion on prisons.

Ken Clarke's approach was a combination of privatisation and sentencing reform but I think both failed to deliver the expected saving - but the prison population was forming. His successor has decided to privatise probation and see if that works as well as some really awful reforms to legal aid (especially legal aid challenges by prisoners).

Overcrowding is a problem but I don't think it's as significant as in the US given how many fewer people we incarcerate.

Hopefully given that crime rates are falling and, I think, public fear of crime is declining we'll actually be able to save money by having less people in prison.

[dps]

First-degree murder, without any sort of mitigating factors, should result in execution.

I agree, though I suspect that you might find more mitigating factors than I would.  However, I also think that to impose the death penalty, there needs to be a higher standard of proof than that needed to convict.

[fhdz]

I'm not opposed to the death penalty in principle, but I'm opposed to the way it is applied here.