Iranian justice - man buried to his waist, hands tied behind his back - and then stoned to death

[Fuzzness 2]

killing is killing. legal bullsh!t doesn't make it right for me.

[Cry_Tuff 0]

Some forms of the death penalty are more civilized than others.

I agree.

As much as I agree with SOME of it....Hammurabi's Code of Law is not a very civilized way to secure justice.

[Nancy2015 2]

Well, I believe that some criminals - Charles Manson comes to mind - should be killed in very inhumane ways and suffer a great deal before they die.

However, stoning people for something like adultery is too harsh. But then again, I'm not Iranian and I don't understand this culture.

[The_dip_sticks 0]

In my opinion, what ever method ANY goverment chooses to employ to carry out a death sentence is a crime. Killing is killing. We can't exactly point the finger at any one for how they carry out their punishments. We are not from that culture, religion, or mind set so we cant assimilate how commiting adultery is deserving of a death sentence. I'm not defending their actions for doing so, but before people get shocked and think countries like Iran have an inhuman government for applying barbaric death sentences, we cant pretend to be saints either when it comes to capital punishments in our own country. Just because our government as well as others around the world punish people for their crimes by killing them, does not make it right. In countires like Iran they stone people to death and we lay them on a bed and restrain them and inject them with the the lethal injection. No matter what people do, I don't think its right for us to take over Gods job and take it upon our selves to punish anyone by killing them. I don't condone killing (death sentence) for adultery or ANY other crime for that matter.

I think the media is trying to use any little bitty thing now to make Iran look as public enemy number one. The people wanting to take us to war with this country want to wrap our heads with so many twisted double standared views about a country that has never attacked us. By exposing one sided views of Iran the media will end up making us resent its goverment, and after getting brainwashed AGAIN with lots of twisted exposure of the inhuman Irani goverment and BS lies people will jump on the bandwagon to go to war thinking that we are now going to Iran to free the Irani people, just like Bush palyed with our heads reagarding Iraq war and 911. We should proceed with caution and analyze all the stories we get bombarded with before we jump conclusions.

Before judging and pointing fingers we should reflect on the practices that our own government currently uses to punish criminals for their capital offenses. In doing so, we will see that we can't exactly wash our hands when it comes to death sentences. Certainly we can't compare crimes and judge on what is merit of being put to death, because we have different religions, views, technology , education levels, as well as other advances, and therefore our thinking will be way different. In the US killing is a nice ticket to death row, and in countries like Iran, adultery is the equivalent of how we perceive murder. In earlier centuries, here in America, it was considered a crime to commit adultery. Either time in jail or death was the punishment. Sadly, in this present moment, infidelity and adultery are no longer considered a sin, but normal. Our enlightment of progressive thinking did wonders for us as a productive united coutnry but pulled our people away from God. Because of this the morality of our culture has suffered in many areas. Our culture has evolved in such a way that we have laws that have no loyalty for the ways of God. On the other hand their culture is still as we were during our puritin era.

Going back to the 1600's when the Puritans were prancing around preaching manifest destiny along with their Christianity ways of life, adultery was punished by stoning to death. That was the legally mandated penalty for adultery in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By looking at other Puritan laws, if we were is not told that these come from the Puritans bible, our first guess is that these are some sort of crazy fundamentalist ideas of how women are treated in Islam. Regretfully, stereoptyping and ignorance will lead many to jump the gun to that false assumption.

To be more specific here is a general guideline of the Puritans way of life regarding wemon in thoes days:

1. "A woman must never be alone with a man other than her husband. If she must visit someone or such, she needs to bring a friend or her husband along. This not only protects her from sin, but also the other man from sinful thoughts. *A genteel young lady could risk losing her good name permanently if she were ever discovered to have spent time alone in the company of a man who was not a relative."

2. "Modest dressing is a requirement. She must keep herself completely covered. This helps prevent lust in the hearts of onlookers and also helps her remember that she is to be pure and innocent under God. *Women's dresses (in Puritan days) came all the way to the ground, and to allow a gentleman to glimpse a black - stockinged ankle while climbing into or out of a horse drawn carriage, by accident or on purpose, was to risk getting a reputation for moral looseness."

3." She must not visit or travel, other than necessary shopping, etc. without the guidance and protection of her husband or some other relative who can be trusted such as a brother, father, uncle, etc. Thus her purity and actions are carefully guarded. (What man can commit a sin with a woman who is protected in such a way? And what woman can commit sin when she is so cautiously guarded?)"

4. "No woman should have a male friend, except her own husband. This goes the same for men. It is far too risky and unsafe because of temptation for either person."

5. "Parents must carefully watch over their children. The Bible states in Deut. 22, that a young lady, who commits fornication, is to be stoned at her parents door. This is not only sad, but a shame to the parents for not properly caring for her. It is intimated to parents that they must by all means possible preserve their children's chastity, by giving them good advice and admonition, setting them good examples, keeping them from bad company, praying for them, and laying them under needful restraints, because, if the children"

Any how my point is that the west is no longer living under biblical or other religious ways of thought like other countries are. It may be hard for us to comprehend but that's just my take on. Maybe one day adultery wont be such big sin for them, or they might abandon stoning and move on to the electrical chair like we used to have or they just might take up our lethal injection practices for crimes perceived punishable by death, who knows. Countries develop and evolve their ways of thinking at different paces. We should not be so surpised that they still punish people to death for adultery like the puritins did centruies ago. Instead we shoud be shocked at the fact that in this day in age, with all the advances that our own culture and society has developed WE are still sentencing people to death too, period! The US should be the last ones to start pointing bloody fingers regarding Irans backward death sentence practice's when we have pretty despicable death sentences in the US aswell. Both governments are equally guilty of such disgusting death sentencing crimes. Who put the idea in our head that death sentencing is acceptable for our highest offenders but not for any one else? A comparison of wether a crime fits the punishment should not matter what is a concern is that both governments are equally guilty in commiting the same crime by putting people to death for breaking the law of their respective land.

Edited September 26, 2007 by The_dip_sticks

[sara535 15]

This whole subject makes me pretty uncomfortable and turns me into an instant hypocrite. In theory I really oppose the death penalty and state sanctioned killing. HOWEVER, if anyone ever took one of my kids and did any kind of hurting/molesting/raping/killing type things I am 100% sure that I would wholeheartedly back the idea of a stoning as long as I was able to throw some of the rocks.

[BabyBlueSusie 1]

i think some forms are better than others (lethal injection, slightly better than being quartered and bleeding to death), but i dont advocate any of them

[BabyBlueSusie 1]

sorry i tried to edit my last post to include this, but it didnt work...

how come some people are allowed to kill while others are not?

say someone kills my fiance and i am the only one who knows about...to seek revenge, and punish the murderer (this wouldnt really happen of course), say i go and kill him...in return, i could then be arrested and killed for doing so...i, in theory, did the same thing as the police officer who is killing me (punishing a murderer with death), but somehow its ok for the police officer to kill, and not for me...it doesnt make logical sense...its like waving around a magical wand