Again a misunderstanding. When you have a law, it's not the point of view of an individual, it's the point of view of the whole society you live in, the society which has constituted the law. So what you perceive as impossible to answer is actually pretty simple. The law defines what is right and what is wrong. Or do you say your law doesn't? Or that you don't agree with your law? In the latter case you wouldn't be living in the society then ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Valleysboy1978
I guess today the laws are so sophisticated, you would rarely find an act that has not been described by the law as right or wrong. And if at all you had a situation where the law couldn't assist you, you always have the option of not giving death sentence. So where you have a doubt as to whether the convicted person really is the perpetrator of the said crime, or if the crime really is worth a capital punishment, you can always defer the death sentence. However where the crime has been proven beyond doubt (and if you have a system where it's "impossible to determine 100% of the guilt of a person", then your system is obviously flawed) and is serious enough to attract a death penalty, it shouldn't be held back just on some humanitarian grounds.
To those who say death is irreversible: Consider the Guantanamo Bay suspects. They are being held without trial for three years and more. There is no end to their so-called detention. A few of them have already been released without charges and have gone back to their respective countries. What do you tell them?? Do you give them back their life which they wasted in prison? Do you give them back their social status which they lost when they were captured? Do you give them back their peace of mind which they have lost because of the torture? You simply can't. Even when a person is tried for a charge and prosecuted, even if he doesn't actually go to jail, he suffers. And nobody can give it back to him. So why such a big hue and cry about the death penalty. I have already made clear it should be awarded where the crime and its seriousness have been proven beyond doubt. There is no point in holding it back just to make up a good humanitarian record at the cost of taxpayers and risking many other innocent lives.
To conclude: All those who have said the judicial systems (including jury trials) are unable to establish guilt without doubt, your statements explain the problem. The problem is not capital punishment, the problem is your systems are flawed. It's sort of like nuclear technology. Do you simply discard all nuclear technology and wipe it out because there is a chance it may be dangerous to the human race? I would think everybody here would say we should ensure it is better used and better controlled. Same principle goes for the death sentence. It's pretty effective as a tool, when used judiciously. When your system is incompetent, you can't expect it to deliver justice. In that case, any sentences handed over by these systems are potentially flawed.
To prove my point, read the reaction to the recent execution of a Vietnamese Australian by the Singapore government for drug trafficking.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/4505572.stm
quote from the article:
Read further down, the guy was carrying around 26,000 doses of drugs. If he was let go with a lesser sentence, you would soon have Singapore as yet another hub of drug trafficking. Because you now know you won't get any mercy, you are less likely to be carrying drugs in Singapore. And please please don't claim you did it by mistake if you got caught. There really isn't no justification for such acts.Quote:
But Mr Howard rejected calls for trade and military boycotts against Singapore, one of Australia's strongest allies in Asia.
He added that the execution should serve as a warning to other young Australians.
"Don't imagine for a moment that you can risk carrying drugs anywhere in Asia without suffering the most severe consequences," he said.
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