I think the punishment should be expanded to include crimes other than killing. Is it better to be shot and killed or kidnapped, raped and tortured for months? I don't know. I don't know if ANYONE can know. But I believe that if someone kidnaps, rapes and tortures someone for months, they deserve to die for it. Ed O.
OK. So you're in favor of executing mentally ill persons committing crimes, in which no one dies, based on the emotional impact of the crime committed, not the actual violation itself. Quite draconian of you.
The guy was a diagnosed schizophrenic. http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/12/eugene_melendres_ramos_charged.php
You're intermingling things unnecessarily. Actus reus: I am in favor of extending the death penalty. Exactly which crimes should be capital I'm not sure on, but I do NOT think it should just be for the most heinous murders. Mens rea: I think that if a certain threshold has been reached with the actus reus, the mens rea is irrelevant. If an person criminally sets off a nuke and kills a thousand people, I don't care if the person was insane or sane and religious or just wanted to be famous. My perspective can definitely be seen as draconian, no question. Ed O.
I am in favor of executing mentally ill persons who pull diapers off 2 year old little girls in stores and rape them. This little girl was his second victim, let's not have a third.
There are two ways that I see emotion potentially playing a part of the justice system: 1. Incorrectly applying law. Juries should not find guilt or innocence based on whether they don't like a law or whether they like a defendant. 2. Formation of law. Criminal law should reflect the will of the people, IMO, and people are emotional creatures. While cost-benefit and social utility theory also can come into play, emotion is and SHOULD BE a part of determining which crimes are worse than others--and to what level different crimes should be punished. To kill this guy now would be #1. To change the law so the next time it happens there can be capital consequences would be #2... and I'd be fine with that, personally. Ed O.
So a child gets sexually abuse by his father for 20 years and then turns around and sexually abuses another child . . . kill him?
If you would execute a non-sexually abused criminal for the same crime, yes. An explanation does not undo the damage that has been done. Ed O.
I say yes. It sucks because he is simply a product of his environment. I mean it's not his fault he was born into a home with an abusive parent. Then again, wouldn't the same apply to people who commit murder that grew up in Compton or Watts for example? It's not that individuals fault that he was born to a single mother who was addicted to heroine, and not to an upstanding family living in the suburbs. Things happen to children sometimes that makes them do bad things. There is never a reason to murder someone in cold blood. Just like there is never a reason to rape a 2 year old girl.
Killing the person does not undo the damage that has been done. I think there are times that society should show some understanding of the situations and not just an across the board you do this and we kill you. True life in prison protects society as much as killing him.
Define rapist. An 18 year and 1 day old girl having sex with her 17 year and 364 day old boyfriend is a rapist by definition
The criminal law should reflect the will of the people AND people are emotional creatures? Ridiculous. The law is meant to be emotionless and objective, not subject to interpretation. Cost benefit analysis whether to execute people? You're going down a slippery slope here where you end in a society where morals and thoughts become crimes.
There have been mistakes made with probation and peperwork, and escapes of very violent people, who once out have commited horrible crimes. No one that has been executed has ever come back to commit a horrible crime
I hope the customers who detained him beat the living shit out of him, too. I know I would have. What a heinous act. Hopefully the girl is so young that she won't remember it when she gets older.
