There was some old dude, one of the fathers of law enforcement (I want to say Peele was his name) but the reason capital punishment has little effect is because it's not carried through in a swift and decisive mannor. After 17 years of waiting people tend to forget why something was supposed to happen.
My personal thought on this is that if death sentances were carried out within 24 hours it might have an effect because it would be swift, and decisive. But I could be wrong.
I took a class in psychology, and the material covered would agree with you. The longer after an activity that you want to reward or punish that you give them an award or punishment the lesser the effect. Of course, I guess the death penalty's effect on a murder is the same regardless of when it's carried out, however as an example it would probably be more effective if it was quick and decisive. It would be hard to get all the legal work done in 24 hours though, hence it'll always be as it is.
Good point ASCI_Blue. I gotta agree. When 10 years go by and there really hasn't been anything except for a bunch of liberals whining about the death penalty (but gung-ho for abortions) and wasted DA and court time. If I were to run over to the person I hate most's house, and plug the guy in the head with a .22, $100 says that I am in jail, and convicted within 12 months (and unable to continue the process with the appellate court).
I dont see why even attatching another year onto that would be a problem. If it takes you 20 years to clear yourself either :
a) you finally found the loophole (meaning you are guilty but found the flaw in the law due to a really good attorney)
b) need to pay better attention to your surroundings and what you do
c) People hate you. More than that, they conspired damn well to get ya. And got ya good, at that.
my $.02
The death penalty isn't really a punishment. Punishments are meant to reform people. The death penalty just eliminates that person from the world. It's more of a preventative measure. Therefore, I don't think the delay has much effect on its effectiveness. The death penalty works by criminals knowing they may get it before doing a crime. If they know they may get it, then it probably doesn't matter to them how long the delay will be. Death is death. But yeah, I do think it should be carried out more swiftly. The criminals should have plenty of chance to defend themselves, go through appeals, whatever. There have been innocent people sentenced to the death penalty that got out on appeals. (That should never happen in the first place. It should be blatantly obvious someone is guilty before the death penalty is issued.) But it should be carried out within a year after the final appeal. It wastes tax money to wait longer.
[quote author=sarah31 link=board=14;threadid=5812;start=30#55919 date=1039945982]
are you saying that americans are a more barbaric culture?
[/quote]
Violence doesn't mean a culture is more barbaric, I would argue that it is less barbaric. A barbarian is horrible at using and creating tools, and peace hasn't exist since earth showed up on the planetary scene. Not only that, but violence doesn't have to be with guns or fists, but words but people don't seem to think that a sarcastic human or someone who is mean is barbaric, they generally are called gifted due to their manipulation of local society.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks