Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes.

No.

Only for certain crimes. (Name please)

[Phmcw]

Hu... your discussion lead me to conclude that the most human way to kill someone is decapitation by a cannonball. I'm disturbed , part because it sound logical yet horribly wrong, part because I can't help but picture it in a cartoonish fashion.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

If you must kill somebody, because you have a big cowboy hat and give tax breaks to oil tycoons, then use lethal injection. Biological chemists have worked hard to find drugs effectively kill in a short time with no suffering.

According to the prisoners themselves, the whole "painless" part is a lie and the lethal injection drugs cause you to have a horribly painful death while paralyzed. Of course, for obvious reasons, we can't really verify if it's painful or not.

Why would you even think to use a firing squad?

Utah still does, as their alternate method to lethal injection. Someone decided to opt into it recently, and he was executed a couple of months ago.

I would think firing squad would be the most humane option.

Now, before Vector uses her superhuman hearing powers and crucifies me for it, I have some reasons.

1)It kills the person quickly. In most cases, highly trained marksmen are used, and it is about a forty yard distance between.

2)There are around five men, and only about two have bullets. the rest have blanks, so noone knows who fired of the killing shot.

You think wrong. The thing about firing squads is that they're chaotic, and historically prone to sometimes leave the individual shot but alive after the first volley. People are a lot tougher to kill than you'd think. We didn't become the apex predator of the entire planet by being easy to kill. Bullets also damage the body to a degree, making the condemned's funeral somewhat awkward if they had a chunk or two blown out of them by the firing squad. It's much harder to screw up lethal injection.

[Bauglir]

Actually, no lethal injections don't just paralyze you. You're unconscious pretty fast, which is the point. Faster than a near miss with a bullet, certainly. Point blank shooting would be a different story, but you'd be left with no doubt as to who did it. Now, for a small fee, I could construct a chair with an attached cap, that had 6 shotguns mounted radially around it. Then you'd just have 6 people push the buttons that are wired to set off the guns, from another room. If you want to use bullets, that's the way to go. This sounds kind of ridiculous, though.

[Taricus]

Can't we crush them with something big and heavy falling at a high speed?

[Max White]

According to the prisoners themselves, the whole "painless" part is a lie and the lethal injection drugs cause you to have a horribly painful death while paralyzed. Of course, for obvious reasons, we can't really verify if it's painful or not.

If any of those prisoners are chemists, I will take that under advisement.
Still against death penalty anyway...

[Jacob/Lee]

Guys, I'll let you discuss as you are right now but please don't turn this into a flame war.

[Flare]

Well, he is right... A shot between the eyes causes complete failure of the brain instantly IIRC

Wouldn't the bullet just hit the more primitive parts of the brain responsible for heart rate and lungs? The higher function part of the brain would still be intact if the bullet went straight between the eyes.

Edit: Can anyone tell me why they don't put them into a coma or make them unconscious first? It seems if you don't want the guy to suffer, then you don't have him around at all when you kill the person.

[Bauglir]

Use hollow-points. NEXT OBJECTION, PLEASE.

Oh gods why am I defending this idea

EDIT: They do. Lethal injections typically include sodium thiopental, which causes unconsciousness well before any of the other drugs involved start to cause problems, and can actually kill on its own.

[Glowcat]

Actually I think they would. There is a reason why the number of murder is 3 time less in Belgium than is the US. We are conditioned to think that murder is unacceptable, while Americans are conditioned to think that murder is the capital punishment. That, better social security and gun ban.

If there's a reason you can't seem to decide what it is. You're taking a rather gigantic logical leap in assuming that Belgium's murder rate is low (even in part) because of the lack of death penalty... while throwing in other plausible causes but no evidence for your premise.

[Max White]

Can anyone tell me why they don't put them into a coma or make them unconscious first? It seems if you don't want the guy to suffer, then you don't have him around at all when you kill the person.

They do, it is part of the lethal injection.

Use hollow-points. NEXT OBJECTION, PLEASE.

That still does not ensure instant death in 100% of cases.
Also, you didn't address the prior point of mental harm to the firing squad. Please finish what is on your plate before you ask for seconds.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I must agree with Glowcat. The murder rate in the US is high in part because of the War on Drugs, not capital punishment or gun ownership. That said, the crime rate in general is falling in the US even though the population is still rising. We have a hundred million more people than we did in 1950, but the same murder rate and falling.

[Neonivek]

Frankly I don't agree with the idea of a Shooting Squad

It runs on the EXACT same premise as Stoning in that "You don't know who killed them".

Let me tell you: "You ALL did"

[Phmcw]

Actually I think they would. There is a reason why the number of murder is 3 time less in Belgium than is the US. We are conditioned to think that murder is unacceptable, while Americans are conditioned to think that murder is the capital punishment. That, better social security and gun ban.

If there's a reason you can't seem to decide what it is. You're taking a rather gigantic logical leap in assuming that Belgium's murder rate is low (even in part) because of the lack of death penalty... while throwing in other plausible causes but no evidence for your premise.

The three combined, I believe. War on drug is not an option, since we wage it as well . There are countries with high gun ownership and very low criminality, so I take it gun ownership is only a problem when murder rate is already high (which is pretty logical).


And my cannonball idea is better.

Edit : to expand a bit : social security probably reduce the necessity to turn to criminality when in trouble, the gun ban will reduce the opportunities and easiness to commit murder (yes, because it's not a full gun ban, and the deadlier the weapon, the hardest it is to acquire) , and the taboo or murder reduce the subconscious appeal to murder. Three effect that are likely to combine.

[Bauglir]

Use hollow-points. NEXT OBJECTION, PLEASE.

That still does not ensure instant death in 100% of cases.
Also, you didn't address the prior point of mental harm to the firing squad. Please finish what is on your plate before you ask for seconds.

But I want dessert!

Okay, yeah, posting that alone would just be shitposting. Anyway, if we first assume excellent aim and high-quality rifles built onto a wall-mounted swivel (to steady the shot), and can thus safely assume that the bullets will hit the correct target, then that would ensure an essentially 100% instant-kill rate. I have no offers for the psychological thing, mostly because I doubt there are any other than giving the local sociopaths a day job.

NOTE: I do not in seriousness support firing squads, and voted No to the death penalty in general. This is mostly devils-advocating.

[ggamer]

Actually, no lethal injections don't just paralyze you. You're unconscious pretty fast, which is the point. Faster than a near miss with a bullet, certainly. Point blank shooting would be a different story, but you'd be left with no doubt as to who did it. Now, for a small fee, I could construct a chair with an attached cap, that had 6 shotguns mounted radially around it. Then you'd just have 6 people push the buttons that are wired to set off the guns, from another room. If you want to use bullets, that's the way to go. This sounds kind of ridiculous, though.

That is an extremely good point. I would think Utah's method would be the best, Both lethal injection and firing squad used, and a prisoner choosing which one.

Again, this is all taking into account that this person is specifically guilty, and can quite literally be placed at the crime scene. We don't have the resources as a a country to kill every person who might have mudered.