Baltar Summary: Baltar is WRONG about the electric chair thing, AND he offers his opinion on the death penalty.I am sort of wrong about the Electric Chair thing.
People have survived, but usually they just get sent back into it in the US.
However, they always have a parole hearing to see if it's cruel and unusual punishment and in one case a judge tried to overrule is own decision but was turned down by the state of Louisiana.
There is in some places in the world (possibly in some states, however I'm not reading through the legislations of 38 states to figure out which have it and which don't) where a death penalty uses a clause that lets you get out if A) you survive the electric chair and B) if you clinically died while being put into it, or in other words since you did 'die' then the execution sentence was technically served.
Which during the time the clauses were made meant that your heart had to stop working then restart without medical aid or treatment... which has yet to happen for the electric chair or for that matter any form of execution including the equally problematic lethal injection.
The real issue in the US is whether or not lethal injection and the electric chair are 'constitutionally sound' and whether or not they can be considered 'cruel and unusual punishment'.
Again,
The Willie Francis Case is often cited in such legal arguments over the use of carrying out the death penalty. Especially since his own judge wanted to overturn is sentencing to be sent back to the electric chair a second time.
I also recommend checking out
websites like this which demonstrate how many times executions are botched in the United States. A lot of these websites aren't even all inclusive lists since there are records of hundreds of cases where the executioners screw up really bad.
If you're going to kill someone I'm an advocate of just putting a shotgun to the back of his / her goddamn head and pulling the trigger. It's probably cheaper for the one shotgun shell, it's quick, it's painless and really hard to fuck up.
Also I know I'm a Canadian and we're all Communist bastards or whatever, but realistically the death penalty is more expensive than a 'life in prison' sentence, since people on death row usually rot in jail for 20 years anyways, and get to have twice as many parole hearings to overturn their sentences.
Every time they go to court that costs the government a whole shit load of cash to pay for the lawyers, the judge, possibly juries etc. Then when it comes time to ACTUALLY kill someone there is tons of money that gets sunk into staff and equipment to make sure it isn't "cruel and unusual".
some stats
Quote:
Jersey
A New Jersey Policy Perspectives report concluded that the state's death penalty has cost taxpayers $253 million since 1983, a figure that is over and above the costs that would have been incurred had the state utilized a sentence of life without parole instead of death.
Tennessee
Death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.
Tennessee District Attorneys General are not consistent in their pursuit of the death penalty.
The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases.
Kansas
The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case).
The appeal costs for death cases were 21 times greater.
I mean the cost is always more for death cases irregardless of States.
I'd rather pay less for it, make these pricks spend the rest of their lives doing hard labour and doing something useful for society, and rotting in a tiny cage.
It also makes my conscience feel better when some guys get off when they're proven innocent later, rather then worrying about whether or not someone should have been executed.
That's just my two cents though.
_________________
Bowie wrote:
I come on every day and have no idea what Baltar is talking about.
Login
FAQ
Search
