Death penalty for Boston bomber Dzokar Tsarnaev

[che_don_john]

Wanting to keep someone alive but hesitating to act out of fear for your own life, is definitely not the same as making a decision to end someone's life without being prepared to do your own dirty work. False analogy.

I'm really not sure what your point is mate. Are you saying that jurors that decide the accused is guilty, should find him not guilty if there is the possibility of the death sentence and they themselves are not willing to flip the switch?

That's the way I read it as well.

No, I wasn't talking about jurors specifically. whp.blue made a good and fair point that their role is just to decide on who is guilty; it's up to the judge to sentence someone to death. I posed the question of whether the jurors knew that execution was a possible outcome (which I think they must have known, the judge would have told them).

My original point was a general one about attitudes to the death penalty, and how I feel about it. That is, I think it is easy to be for it when you're not the one who has to carry out. It must be an awful thing for someone to have to do (no matter how terrible the condemned person is); I couldn't do it, I couldn't flip the switch, and therefore I wouldn't ask anyone else to do it, either.

Think the ferry scene in The Dark Knight!

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

I have no desire to see the criminal suffer as he dies, which is why I suggested a bomb as a humane way to kill him. I'm naturally a caring and compassionate person.

Would the bomb be subject to an audio countdown?

 

[Sir peace frog]

I have no desire to see the criminal suffer as he dies, which is why I suggested a bomb as a humane way to kill him. I'm naturally a caring and compassionate person.

Would the bomb be subject to an audio countdown?

turn it into a game show type thing,


left abit up abit right a bit FIRE :)

 

[blueish swede]

I'm really not sure what your point is mate. Are you saying that jurors that decide the accused is guilty, should find him not guilty if there is the possibility of the death sentence and they themselves are not willing to flip the switch?

That's the way I read it as well.

No, I wasn't talking about jurors specifically. whp.blue made a good and fair point that their role is just to decide on who is guilty; it's up to the judge to sentence someone to death. I posed the question of whether the jurors knew that execution was a possible outcome (which I think they must have known, the judge would have told them).

My original point was a general one about attitudes to the death penalty, and how I feel about it. That is, I think it is easy to be for it when you're not the one who has to carry out. It must be an awful thing for someone to have to do (no matter how terrible the condemned person is); I couldn't do it, I couldn't flip the switch, and therefore I wouldn't ask anyone else to do it, either.

Think the ferry scene in The Dark Knight!

Although in this particular case it was the jury who determined whether the death sentence was passed down or not.

In federal criminal cases, if the jury (or judge, if there is no jury) decides that the defendant is guilty, the judge sets a date for a sentencing hearing. In federal criminal cases, the jury doesn’t decide whether the defendant will go to prison or for how long; the judge does. In federal death penalty cases, however, the jury does decide whether the defendant will receive a death sentence.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.fjc.gov/federal/courts.nsf/autoframe!openform&nav=menu1&page=/federal/courts.nsf/page/233" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fjc.gov/federal/courts.nsf/a ... f/page/233</a>

Two families of those killed came out publicly in opposition of the death penalty, the parents of the 8yr old boy and the sister of the Police officer who was shot during the pursuit.