"03-12-03 08:24 PM
Is Capital Punishment ever justified?
Please explain your answer.
Besides being in favor of capital punishment for drug dealers, I also am in favor of executing murderers, rapists and child molesters.
And before the subject comes up and so there is no shadow of a doubt as to guilt, let the scenarios be that the perpetrator in question has been linked to the crime either via witnesses/security cameras/self-taped videos and DNA testing.
Furthermore, for those of you worried about costs, i.e. $1 million per capital execution, let us take either the Malaysian method of hanging or the Chinese method of a single bullet to the back of the head and then charging the family for the bullet. Cheap."
Imagine the following scenario.
The brother of hapboy was murdered. The defendant up on murder charges was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. The prosecution had presented evidence of the witness's guilt that was iron clad. The defendant had confessed. Yet, as a result of a the defense given by the attorney and the case he made, the defendant was allowed to go free due to a not guilty on the basis of temporary insanity verdict.
What was the temporary insanity? The victim of the murder was wearing full arabic gear complete with turban and shouting death to America, laughing about 911 and the tragedy. In a moment of confusion and stress, the defendant snapped, went into a blind rage and violently attacked the hapboy's brother, and choked him to death with his bare hands. The defendant believed hapboy's brother to be a terrorist ready to kill Americans.
It was later discovered that the murder victim, hapboy's brother, was an actor who was preparing for an audition for a role in a movie. He was not an Arab or terrorist supporter at all, he was just acting like one.
The jury was sympathetic to the defendant who killed hapboy's brother. They clearly understood how they might have felt the same way in the situation. They understood that it was not a pattern of negative behavior, just part of the "911" syndrome that is very similar to post traumatic stress syndrome. So they let him go free based on the temporary insanity defense.
So, the murderer who confessed to the killing of hapboy's brother, was found not guilty on the basis of goes free.
hapboy who had been attending the trial goes into a blind rage. "How could they let this killer go. He deserves to die" hapboy thinks. "He killed my brother." He follows the defendant out into the parking lot, grabs a gun from his pocket, and shoots the defendant dead. There murder was videotaped, hundreds of witnesses, fingerprints, gunshot residue, etc. Iron clad case of murder.
hapboy goes to trial. His attorney uses the temporary insanity defense, but the prosecution presents the comments by hapboy that have appeared in this thread, and the jury concludes that hapboy was sane, and pre-disposed to kill based on his belief that all murderers deserve to be put to death.
Should we put hapboy to death based on the above scenario?
Would that be justice?