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Nebraska repeals Death Penalty


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Apologies, BRB, I think we're mostly in agreement. Just tripped up over my wording.

That's very possible.

 

I agree with the attitudes around an execution are strange. But, if you think of them in a very primitive manner, I think they are understandable.

 

I'm not a psychologist but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once so let me try.

 

The quality of security in our prisons now is relatively a new modern development. for thousands of years, humans have had to work to protect themselves from the mentally deranged ones amongst us that are willing and able to kill us and our loved ones. So, we developed methods of taking care of that threat.

 

If society doesn't have the luxury of a very secure prison system, that threat needs to be taken care of in another way. That "another way" is to simply get rid of that threat...(kill it). So, 1,000 years ago, if there was a mass murderer, the actual logical way to get rid of that threat was to kill that mass murderer before they kill more of us nice people. The society IS safer because that mass murderer is no longer on this earth to threaten us.

 

If that is the way people lived on this earth for centuries, then that is hard wired into our brains as the way to be safe from these people. I believe that primal thought process is the basis behind our society's supporting of the death penalty to this day. After an execution, people aren't partying and happy. It is a sense of relief that this person won't be able to do that to anyone again. In reality, our prisons are secure enough that as long as they are behind those walls, (will almost no chance of escaping or getting out) society is protected but our minds don't view it that way because that horrible person is still alive.

 

Does that make sense?

 

 

I am sort of a psychologist and I agree with your argument. As long as the person is alive--even if behind maximum security bars--there's always a chance for escape. I think something else that greatly plays into the support of the death penalty is that, aside from the victim's friends and relatives, a minute amount of have a "dog in the fight," which prompts us to use heuristics to make our decisions. So because of our hard-wired nation, he killed lots of people = death penalty is often the outcome for the majority of society.

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As someone who is pro life, against abortion, I totally support getting rid of the death penalty. It is not our place to take someone's life from them, that it is God's to do when He determines it is time. Then they will face the consequences for their life.

How come God gives them the power to take another's life? I mean, there is only one true Judge right? So why is a murderer allowed to Judge another and make them deserving of death? Also, doesn't the Bible say "an eye for an eye"? If we are not the ones to hold each other accountable, then you must be against judges an judicial law, no? Just curious of your postion on this.

 

I wouldn't want to be the guy that has anything to do with the death of another either. I imagine that if there is an almighty judge, he will see that you took part in the taking of a life he created. If there's any truth to the preaching of Christianity, then you would be led to believe it's no mans place to be judge, jury, or executioner of another man, correct?

 

People have been executing other human beings for a very, very long time. We've either been doing it right or we've been doing it wrong for quite a while. Another way to look at it would be this: Is the executioner of the wicked doing God's work? Is he even more of a Saint than we since he is cleansing the world of a dispicable person?

 

God gives free choice. As such each of us has the choice to sin or do good just has we have the choice to love God or not to love God.

 

Now if someone makes the choice to sin, and to murder someone is definitely this, they definitely are deserving of punishment, eternal separation from God. All sins in the eyes of God are equal and have that same punishment. God is the one who determines the punishment and thus since He created live, should determine when to take it away. God will make sure to punish those not covered by the blood of Christ, and since we are not God, should leave that heavy task of numbering a man's days, up to Him.

 

A verse that I think really explains this well is this.

 

"Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

- Romans 12:19

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Im glad the guy who threw his five year old brother over a bridge and into a river, killed his mother with a baseball bat/knife and threw his other baby brother in a dumpster gets to live the rest of his life. Good for him

 

 

 

Everybody gets to live 'the rest of their life'. That's what life is. It's living.

 

 

 

 

Moiraine had a good perspective on this a bit ago, and knowing that there's just one person wrongly convicted with a death sentence should be enough to be against this senseless and misguided practice.

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It is kind of funny how this issue still gets marginalized as "liberal" when a number of our senators took traditionally conservative views such as religious beliefs and monetary waste into account when they voted. The death penalty doesn't work even beyond moral issues. Not a deterrent, incredibly expensive and arguably makes the criminals more famous. Factor in the moral dilemma if society as a whole should condone the act and it seems like a practice that would be better off going away. Political points are to be won though so it will continue to dominate the headlines and election cycles instead of issues that actually matter to all of our day to day lives.

 

That being said I am entirely confident that they will gather enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot and that our state will vote to reinstate it, screw tax relief or actual prison reform or marijuana or marriage equality or business development or infrastructure issues or the massive bird flu issue that will hurt a lot of people. Lets let this trivial practice that doesn't actually matter to anyone, but a dozen prisoners and their lawyers at the end of the day dominate the rhetoric.

 

We will have to figure out a way to get the drugs though considering the ones Rickets just bought as a political ploy won't be allowed into the country.

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The death penalty will get reinstated is because of who votes - older Nebraskans and rural Nebraskans. The younger generation is relatively opposed to the death penalty, at least in my experiences, but they don't vote.

 

I noticed many "liberal" senators claiming their constituents were opposed to DP, and many of them came from more "liberal" parts of the state i.e. Omaha and Lincoln.

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Do you guys really think it will get reinstated? :(

 

I think the issue matters. It's a fundamental question about what kind of society we want to live in. I'd love to see all 50 States in the Union abolish this archaic practice in my lifetime. And I've got a ways to go, but we're at what, 20?

 

Not to say other issues aren't important, but this one is too.

 

Makes me want to vote in Nebraska.

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The death penalty will get reinstated is because of who votes - older Nebraskans and rural Nebraskans. The younger generation is relatively opposed to the death penalty, at least in my experiences, but they don't vote.

 

I noticed many "liberal" senators claiming their constituents were opposed to DP, and many of them came from more "liberal" parts of the state i.e. Omaha and Lincoln.

Meh....I live in rural western Nebraska. Sure, I know some people that think it's stupid it was repealed but I also know a lot who are glad it's gone or don't care either way. I was listening to a conversation in my office just yesterday and the younger people seemed to be more in favor of the death penalty than older people.

 

You could be falling into some stereotypes in your post. Problem is, I think the politicians in Lincoln are doing the same thing. I'm not big on writing letters to politicians but, in this case, maybe I need to write a few.

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Knowing that even a single innocent and wrongly convicted person has been put to death by the death penalty is enough to not want it, imo.

 

I am at a loss as to how anyone could argue against that.

 

 

Let's say 1 in a 100 is wrongly convicted and put to death. But the other 99 guilty murderers would have gone on to commit half a dozen more murders, had they not been executed. (Presumably killing other prisoners, since they'd be behind bars.) Does the one wrongly convicted guy's life outweigh the six dead guys that we'd have sans a death penalty?

 

====================

 

(I don't think this line of reasoning justifies the death penalty. You just asked if an argument could be made. :lol:)

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