Texas inmate wants to tell a joke at his execution

[homesick_american 1]

Well, I would have thought some people would think twice if they knew there own lives were at risk. But then again, murderers aren't right in the head, and I wouldn't expect them to think before murderering anyone. Yes its a LIFE we are talking about. The same as with the victims it's a LIFE we are talking about there too. Why do people sympathize with the criminal? If it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that they are guilty then they have to take whatever the justice system throws at them.

I don't sympathize with criminals. However, I'm also unwilling to pay over the odds for bloodlust, and I'm certainly not willing to execute innocent people. THAT is my concern. Plenty of people are convicted of capital crimes that it turns out they did not commit; don't you remember when Illinois issued a moratorium on executions, then commuted the sentences of its entire death row?

[Fandango 1,439]

The point of the jury system is not to turn people into robots or have them shut off their emotions - but to reduce the element of bias (specifically emotional bias) creeping into their assessment of the evidence. Isn't that partly why jury selection in these big cases is so drawn out?

Of course you can't prevent your emotions from entering into the equation - but there's a far cry from basic empathy toward the victim or the victims family to sheer mob mentality bloodlust.

Sure, but all the precaution in the world's not going to stop people's emotions from entering into things. I feel it's a natural thing to project...sitting on a jury thinking 'hrmm, this could have been my daughter/son/etc'.

I think there's a middle ground between empathy and 'mob mentality bloodlust' btw. As I keep pointing out, this thread proves the need to see prisoners suffer for their crimes. And that, my friend, is vengeance. Whether you like it or not, that's how I see it.

As for my own feelings, I do believe in the death penalty. I feel that with the scientific breakthroughs with forensic evidence, cases have the ability to be more definitive in the evidence aspect. I don't think EVERYONE who takes a life should be executed, but I think it should be reserved for the most heinous capital crimes. There is no need to give 3 hots and a cot to a mass murderer, let alone with all the 'perks' that some prisons offer.

Some of our nation's veterans are homeless. I find that atrocious that criminals are treated better than heroes.

I read an article at the time of Jeffrey Dahmer's death. It said that he had gained ten pounds in prison (I guess cutting back on eating humans is detrimental to your waistline)...and to compensate, he took up tennis. #######? Tennis? On death row? The article had also said that he changed religions and was baptized in the prison whirlpool. <---tell me what's wrong with that sentence. Of course, this was years ago, and I don't have a link or anything, but I remember it as if it was yesterday cos it got me so angry.

Anyways, that's my $1.57

[Jenn! 918]

I'm curious as to why the issue of how comfortable life is in prison keeps being brought up as if it were justification for the death penalty. Shouldn't the focus be on making prison less comfortable rather than executing people so they don't enjoy the comforts of prison?

Edited June 4, 2007 by jenn3539

[homesick_american 1]

I read an article at the time of Jeffrey Dahmer's death. It said that he had gained ten pounds in prison (I guess cutting back on eating humans is detrimental to your waistline)...and to compensate, he took up tennis. #######? Tennis? On death row? The article had also said that he changed religions and was baptized in the prison whirlpool. <---tell me what's wrong with that sentence. Of course, this was years ago, and I don't have a link or anything, but I remember it as if it was yesterday cos it got me so angry.

Anyways, that's my $1.57

Jeffrey Dahmer was in prison in Wisconsin; Wisconsin doesn't have a death row.

[homesick_american 1]

I'm curious as to why the issue of how comfortable life in prison keeps being brought up as if it were justification for the death penalty. Shouldn't the focus be on making prison less comfortable rather than executing people so they don't enjoy the comforts of prison?

The men on death row were moved from the Huntsville Unit to the Ellis Unit in 1965. Death row remained at the Ellis Unit until 1999. In 1999, the TDCJ moved death row to the Polunsky Unit. The Polunsky Unit houses death row offenders separately in single-person cells measuring 60 square feet, with each cell having a window. Death row offenders are also recreated individually. Offenders on death row receive a regular diet, have access to reading, writing, and legal materials. Depending upon their custody level, some death row offenders are allowed to have a radio. The women on death row are housed at the Mountain View Unit. Offenders on death row do not have regular TDCJ-ID numbers, but have special death row numbers.

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/drowfacts.htm

No computers, no porn, no TV, many without radios, etc.

Comforts of prison my a$$.

[Fandango 1,439]

I read an article at the time of Jeffrey Dahmer's death. It said that he had gained ten pounds in prison (I guess cutting back on eating humans is detrimental to your waistline)...and to compensate, he took up tennis. #######? Tennis? On death row? The article had also said that he changed religions and was baptized in the prison whirlpool. <---tell me what's wrong with that sentence. Of course, this was years ago, and I don't have a link or anything, but I remember it as if it was yesterday cos it got me so angry.

Anyways, that's my $1.57

Jeffrey Dahmer was in prison in Wisconsin; Wisconsin doesn't have a death row.

Hrmm...ok, so he was serving life in prison then. Coulda sworn it was death row, but I'll defer to you.

Either way, tennis and a whirlpool shouldn't be available to any prisoners.

I'm curious as to why the issue of how comfortable life is in prison keeps being brought up as if it were justification for the death penalty. Shouldn't the focus be on making prison less comfortable rather than executing people so they don't enjoy the comforts of prison?

Well I believe in both...prison should be uncomfortable AND there should be the death penalty for the most severe of cases.

I bring the comfort level into it because we as taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for such things.

[homesick_american 1]

Hrmm...ok, so he was serving life in prison then. Coulda sworn it was death row, but I'll defer to you.

Either way, tennis and a whirlpool shouldn't be available to any prisoners.

Wisconsin abolished the DP in 1853, so he definitely was a lifer.

I agree that tennis and a whirlpool shouldn't be available. Prison is prison, not f*cking Club Med.

Edited June 4, 2007 by homesick_american

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The point of the jury system is not to turn people into robots or have them shut off their emotions - but to reduce the element of bias (specifically emotional bias) creeping into their assessment of the evidence. Isn't that partly why jury selection in these big cases is so drawn out?

Of course you can't prevent your emotions from entering into the equation - but there's a far cry from basic empathy toward the victim or the victims family to sheer mob mentality bloodlust.

Sure, but all the precaution in the world's not going to stop people's emotions from entering into things. I feel it's a natural thing to project...sitting on a jury thinking 'hrmm, this could have been my daughter/son/etc'.

I think there's a middle ground between empathy and 'mob mentality bloodlust' btw. As I keep pointing out, this thread proves the need to see prisoners suffer for their crimes. And that, my friend, is vengeance. Whether you like it or not, that's how I see it.

As I said - the argument that "justice is vengeance" is like me saying that "execution is murder". Plenty of people see the distinction between the two and I can't really say otherwise. The distinction does exist IMO, otherwise we likely wouldn't bother with the court at all, but rather drag the accused out of his house and beat him with sticks.

In any case I can't take "vengeance" for something that doesn't affect or involve me. I can understand the victim feeling that way and members of their family - but I can't understand it from complete strangers. And I'm not talking about jurors specifically here either - but people with no investement whatsoever in the case, who pick up bits and pieces from TV news coverage. As I said - the venom thrown and murderous hatred thrown at the attention seeker who claimed to have killed Jon Benet exposes something very ugly in a lot of people - especially as the guy was shown to have had nothing whatsoever to do to it.

[Alex+R 0]

This is veering off topic a bit, but I think you have to be careful with how much deprivation you put in prisons, especially for those who may have a chance at rehabilitation. If you make life unbearably hard, people are generally shown to become more violent in prison, and the last thing we want prisons to do is to make people more violent. I'd like to see most prisons for the worst criminals have crappier conditions, though, if the reports of luxuries in the prisons are true.

[Fandango 1,439]

The point of the jury system is not to turn people into robots or have them shut off their emotions - but to reduce the element of bias (specifically emotional bias) creeping into their assessment of the evidence. Isn't that partly why jury selection in these big cases is so drawn out?

Of course you can't prevent your emotions from entering into the equation - but there's a far cry from basic empathy toward the victim or the victims family to sheer mob mentality bloodlust.

Sure, but all the precaution in the world's not going to stop people's emotions from entering into things. I feel it's a natural thing to project...sitting on a jury thinking 'hrmm, this could have been my daughter/son/etc'.

I think there's a middle ground between empathy and 'mob mentality bloodlust' btw. As I keep pointing out, this thread proves the need to see prisoners suffer for their crimes. And that, my friend, is vengeance. Whether you like it or not, that's how I see it.

As I said - the argument that "justice is vengeance" is like me saying that "execution is murder". Plenty of people see the distinction between the two and I can't really say otherwise. The distinction does exist IMO, otherwise we likely wouldn't bother with the court at all, but rather drag the accused out of his house and beat him with sticks.

In any case I can't take "vengeance" for something that doesn't affect or involve me. I can understand the victim feeling that way and members of their family - but I can't understand it from complete strangers. And I'm not talking about jurors specifically here either - but people with no investement whatsoever in the case, who pick up bits and pieces from TV news coverage. As I said - the venom thrown and murderous hatred thrown at the attention seeker who claimed to have killed Jon Benet exposes something very ugly in a lot of people - especially as the guy was shown to have had nothing whatsoever to do to it.

No one's saying you have to agree with me

Hey, if you can hear about a person killing children and not getting upset, more power to ya.

If someone admits to the whole world they killed and molested a child, they deserve the speculation because it's a most heinous offense.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The point of the jury system is not to turn people into robots or have them shut off their emotions - but to reduce the element of bias (specifically emotional bias) creeping into their assessment of the evidence. Isn't that partly why jury selection in these big cases is so drawn out?

Of course you can't prevent your emotions from entering into the equation - but there's a far cry from basic empathy toward the victim or the victims family to sheer mob mentality bloodlust.

Sure, but all the precaution in the world's not going to stop people's emotions from entering into things. I feel it's a natural thing to project...sitting on a jury thinking 'hrmm, this could have been my daughter/son/etc'.

I think there's a middle ground between empathy and 'mob mentality bloodlust' btw. As I keep pointing out, this thread proves the need to see prisoners suffer for their crimes. And that, my friend, is vengeance. Whether you like it or not, that's how I see it.

As I said - the argument that "justice is vengeance" is like me saying that "execution is murder". Plenty of people see the distinction between the two and I can't really say otherwise. The distinction does exist IMO, otherwise we likely wouldn't bother with the court at all, but rather drag the accused out of his house and beat him with sticks.

In any case I can't take "vengeance" for something that doesn't affect or involve me. I can understand the victim feeling that way and members of their family - but I can't understand it from complete strangers. And I'm not talking about jurors specifically here either - but people with no investement whatsoever in the case, who pick up bits and pieces from TV news coverage. As I said - the venom thrown and murderous hatred thrown at the attention seeker who claimed to have killed Jon Benet exposes something very ugly in a lot of people - especially as the guy was shown to have had nothing whatsoever to do to it.

No one's saying you have to agree with me

Hey, if you can hear about a person killing children and not getting upset, more power to ya.

If someone admits to the whole world they killed and molested a child, they deserve the speculation because it's a most heinous offense.

Its not that I don't get "upset" about it - its that I'm not prepared to lose all sense of perspective by making irrational value judgements about someone merely on the basis of second-hand sources like TV news. I'm certainly not going to start demanding violence against people.

BTW - if someone were to say "he deserves to be hung, drawn and quartered" - that's not speculation in my book, its unilateral condemnation.

[William33 110]

Hrmm...ok, so he was serving life in prison then. Coulda sworn it was death row, but I'll defer to you.

Either way, tennis and a whirlpool shouldn't be available to any prisoners.

Wisconsin abolished the DP in 1853, so he definitely was a lifer.

I agree that tennis and a whirlpool shouldn't be available. Prison is prison, not f*cking Club Med.

He got the death penalty from other inmates. Justice prevailed.

[William33 110]

People are going on about the cost to execute these people. What about the cost to keep them in prison for 25 years or more? A life for a life is what I think, and the sooner the better. The whole world should have the death penalty, as I think even the threat of it would be a detterant for some criminals. JMO.

Statistically its not a deterrant. Otherwise the US would have the lowest capital crime rate in the world...

That is an unfair and unsupported assessment, given that the US has the 3rd largest population in the world. Do you actually believe China and India release accurate figures, in terms of murder rates? I think not.

Edited June 4, 2007 by William33

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

People are going on about the cost to execute these people. What about the cost to keep them in prison for 25 years or more? A life for a life is what I think, and the sooner the better. The whole world should have the death penalty, as I think even the threat of it would be a detterant for some criminals. JMO.

Statistically its not a deterrant. Otherwise the US would have the lowest capital crime rate in the world...

That is an unfair and unsupported assessment, given that the US has the 3rd largest population in the world. Do you actually believe China and India release accurate figures, in terms of murder rates? I think not.

Whether or not you think its unfair, the DP is not a deterrent.

[William33 110]

People are going on about the cost to execute these people. What about the cost to keep them in prison for 25 years or more? A life for a life is what I think, and the sooner the better. The whole world should have the death penalty, as I think even the threat of it would be a detterant for some criminals. JMO.

Statistically its not a deterrant. Otherwise the US would have the lowest capital crime rate in the world...

That is an unfair and unsupported assessment, given that the US has the 3rd largest population in the world. Do you actually believe China and India release accurate figures, in terms of murder rates? I think not.

Whether or not you think its unfair, the DP is not a deterrent.

I said unfair and unsupported. Provide some evidence or statistical data, to support your assertion. Otherwise, it is just another opinion against capital punishment.