If people had the courage of their convictions regarding capital punishment....

[Locut0s]

If people had the courage of their convictions regarding capital punishment, they would have the balls to execute people truly humanely. With say a shotgun. I'm not joking here.

As you can see I'm against capital punishment. I realise not all here will be. I'm not against locking up the worst of the worst and throwing away the key. But not only is capital punishment cruel it's ineffective as a deterrent. The recent Arkansas case where they have fast tracked executions because they have medications that are expiring, makes me sick. Lethal injection is not a human way of execution. It's not fast and there is mounting evidence that it's not at all painless.

And yet lethal injection is advertised as a humane form of execution. Doing so is cowardice. It's a lie. What lethal injection really is, is a sanitised form of execution that relieves the executioner and viewers from as much guilt and trauma as possible. It does nothing for the victim. If you want a real humane form of painless execution use a shotgun to the head. Painless, quick, 100% effective. Of course it's messy and traumatic for the executioner. But that shouldn't be a problem if you are arguing that what you are doing is morally the correct thing to do.

If the argument is that we need to jump through hoops to prevent the executioner and viewers from suffering PTSD. Well then maybe there is something wrong with your initial premise.

[PJMcK]

1. If people had the courage of their convictions regarding capital punishment...

...we would have public executions. Bring back the hangman's noose or the guillotine and invite the crowds. If the State assumes the right to kill, it should be public since the State is acting on behalf of its citizens.

The idea of an "humane" method of death is ludicrous. You're either a killer or not. This idea that you can humanely kill someone is stupid.

Abolish the death penalty. It's pointless and tremendously expensive.

[Locut0s]

4. Agreed. Good point. These deaths are on all of us...

The state is executing these people. But the state is supposed to represent us. So if you are OK with execution then it certainly should be public since we all share a measure of the responsibility of what the state does.

[beam me up scottie]

2. I was so proud that our 2016 platform finally included abolishing the death penalty.

Yet another reason to support the ACLU:

The death penalty in America is a broken process from start to finish. Death sentences are predicted not by the heinousness of the crime but by the poor quality of the defense lawyers, the race of the accused or the victim, and the county and state in which the crime occurred. From 1976 to 2015, 1,392 executions occurred in the United States, and 995 of them took place in the South. Time and time again, we have proven that the criminal justice system fails to protect the innocent and persons with serious mental disabilities and illnesses from execution. Even the administration of executions is utterly flawed: Every method of execution comes with an intolerably high risk of extreme pain and torture.

Public support for the death penalty is falling; the numbers of new death sentences and executions are both rapidly decreasing. The time has come for America to end this failed experiment.

https://www.aclu.org/issues/capital-punishment

It's time to join the rest of the civilized world, we shouldn't be in the business of murdering our prisoners.

[meow2u3]

3. If people really had consistency applying capital punishment

Billionaire (and alleged billionaire*) baddies would be facing the death penalty, no longer being able to buy their way out of trouble.

*this means you, SCROTUS!

[Locut0s]

5. If it was fair we would also see different ethnicities proportionally represented....

Sociopathy doesn't deacriminate and yet people of colour are vastly overrepresented.

[aikoaiko]

6. I recall an essay making the case for guillotine as most human.

I'm one of those who still wants the DP for the most heinous cases where agency is certain and no extenuating/mitigating circumstances exist, but I could live with banning the DP for the sake of the innocent who would be executed.