toldailytopic: Should being diagnosed insane excuse capital punishment?

Lighthouse

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I remember when my mother, bless her soul, would occasionally have too much calcium in her blood stream, because her thyroid medication would interact with her anti psychotics and mood stabilizers in a way that made it difficult for her to absorb it properly. This, if it went on too long, would dehydrate her to points of delirium, in which she would have severe audio and visual hallucinations, as well as strange delusions. To think that you would have her treated in court (in the theoretical scenario, say for vehicular manslaughter) as though she was completely aware of her actions and their consequences, even though she would have obviously NOT been, is disheartening. To say the least.
That would be a symptom of the overkill on prescription medications. I'll wager she was not in need of all of them.
 

ragTagblues

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for November 29th, 2011 09:31 AM


toldailytopic: Should being diagnosed insane excuse capital punishment?


It's not like they are getting away with it, in this country high security mental health institutions are far from pleasant. Further if 'whats his name' who killed all those people in Norway (a tragedy for sure) thinks he has got away with it then he needs to think again . . . . The most unfortunate people inside a high security mental health unit are the one's that are probably totally sane.
 

Granite

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Executing someone who is incapable of understanding their actions--let alone understanding themselves--is nothing more than blood-lusting vindictiveness, nothing more. There is no moral lesson to be had, no justice meted...if anything, the only lesson to be learned in that scenario is that a society callous enough to simply kill its mentally ill isn't much of a society worth saving.
 

Arthur Brain

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I understand.
You would rather spend $30,000 of other people's money per year to keep an insane murderer alive than to put him down like a rabid dog.
:wave2:

I would. Life's worth more than dollar signs and 'inconvenience'. You don't bring back the victims by unjustly putting other people to death GO....

How would you answer this hypothetical? Supposing someone is spiked with LSD (Note I say spiked and not that they'd deliberately ingested the stuff) and while tripping off their nut they end up killing two people. They have no ability to distinguish between reality and hallucination and never return to 'normality' even after the drug has done its course. What do you do with them? Try and give them help to recover or put them down like a 'rabid dog'?

Btw the one who has spiked the person is obviously the guilty party so there's no need to address that but simply the above.
 

Silent Hunter

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Executing someone who is incapable of understanding their actions--let alone understanding themselves--is nothing more than blood-lusting vindictiveness, nothing more. There is no moral lesson to be had, no justice meted...if anything, the only lesson to be learned in that scenario is that a society callous enough to simply kill its mentally ill isn't much of a society worth saving.
I would. Life's worth more than dollar signs and 'inconvenience'. You don't bring back the victims by unjustly putting other people to death GO....

How would you answer this hypothetical? Supposing someone is spiked with LSD (Note I say spiked and not that they'd deliberately ingested the stuff) and while tripping off their nut they end up killing two people. They have no ability to distinguish between reality and hallucination and never return to 'normality' even after the drug has done its course. What do you do with them? Try and give them help to recover or put them down like a 'rabid dog'?

Btw the one who has spiked the person is obviously the guilty party so there's no need to address that but simply the above.
It's the likes of ghost, Inzl Kett, Random, Nick M, aCultureWarrior, genuineoriginal, oatmeal, Lighthouse, chickenman, and Knight (among others) who make me glad I rejected christianity.
 
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aCultureWarrior

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Then why did you choose the verses that did not make that qualification?

Leviticus 24:17,21
17And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.
21And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.​


(Sorry I'm late for class, I see I'm a few pages behind).

You need to know the MAJOR difference between "kill" and "murder" gen.

The OT originally used the word "murder", where the NT uses "kill".

There is a difference, it's unfortunate that the NT didn't use the word "murder".
 

chickenman

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The answer to the OP is simple: NO.

I asked my 12-year old daughter, a couple of weeks ago, if someone should be let off if they plead "Innocent by reason of insanity", and it's proven that they were indeed insane.

She said: "No".

I asked her why.

She said: "Because then a lot of others will claim to be insane so they'll get off, too."

So easy, even a caveman...I mean child...knows the answer.
 

aCultureWarrior

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The answer to the OP is simple: NO.

I asked my 12-year old daughter, a couple of weeks ago, if someone should be let off if they plead "Innocent by reason of insanity", and it's proven that they were indeed insane.

She said: "No".

I asked her why.

She said: "Because then a lot of others will claim to be insane so they'll get off, too."

So easy, even a caveman...I mean child...knows the answer.

Nothing against your 12 year old daughter cm, but we already have those with the mentality of a 12 year old getting involved in legal matters here in the US:

They're called the "ACLU".
 

Arthur Brain

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The answer to the OP is simple: NO.

I asked my 12-year old daughter, a couple of weeks ago, if someone should be let off if they plead "Innocent by reason of insanity", and it's proven that they were indeed insane.

She said: "No".

I asked her why.

She said: "Because then a lot of others will claim to be insane so they'll get off, too."

So easy, even a caveman...I mean child...knows the answer.

Whether or not people try to claim for clemency on the grounds of diminished responsibility, despite being fully compos mentis is a separate issue from whether it's justified to execute the genuinely mentally ill though.
 

aCultureWarrior

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Quote:
Originally Posted by aCultureWarrior
A vast majority of US population consider themselves "Christian" (saying and believing are of course two different things).

Knowing that, I looked up the religious affiliation of those that have molested 8 year boys and girls, brutally raped 91 year old women, and decapitated their wives out of a moment of jealousy (OJ was innocent I tell you!).

Most of those that are responible for the above atrocities and are incarcerated because of it, call themselves "Christian".

I have the doctrine to show that they're NOT following the word of God when it came to their criminal actions, I'd really love to see yours (or could it be that atheists don't believe in God, but have no problem with following His dogma?).

. . . true to my (self-imposed) prediction, the "No True Scotsman Fallacy" rears its ugly face.

(This is an atheist's way of saying: "We really don't have any doctrine, other than that of what we borrow from Judeo-Christian dogma").
 

aCultureWarrior

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Granite
Executing someone who is incapable of understanding their actions--let alone understanding themselves--is nothing more than blood-lusting vindictiveness, nothing more. There is no moral lesson to be had, no justice meted...if anything, the only lesson to be learned in that scenario is that a society callous enough to simply kill its mentally ill isn't much of a society worth saving.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthur Brain
I would. Life's worth more than dollar signs and 'inconvenience'. You don't bring back the victims by unjustly putting other people to death GO....

How would you answer this hypothetical? Supposing someone is spiked with LSD (Note I say spiked and not that they'd deliberately ingested the stuff) and while tripping off their nut they end up killing two people. They have no ability to distinguish between reality and hallucination and never return to 'normality' even after the drug has done its course. What do you do with them? Try and give them help to recover or put them down like a 'rabid dog'?

Btw the one who has spiked the person is obviously the guilty party so there's no need to address that but simply the above.

It's the likes of ghost, Inzl Kett, Random, Nick M, aCultureWarrior, genuineoriginal, oatmeal, Lighthouse, chickenman, and Knight (among others) who make me glad I rejected christianity.

Hold on there son. We're talking about two different issues here:

#1 Someone who was born with limited mental faculities.
#2 Someone who by his own actions destroyed his brain through the use of unlawful drugs.

If you want to lump me in with others, you'll need to see how they feel about the above two subjects.

As I stated in an earlier post, I have compassion for those that were born that way, I don't have any for those that commit crimes because they were irresponsible for their actions in life.
 

Silent Hunter

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(This is an atheist's way of saying: "We really don't have any doctrine, other than that of what we borrow from Judeo-Christian dogma").
Treating people as each of us would like to be treated is not a "doctrine" unique to the judeo-christian tradition.

Fortunately, atheists don't need a fictitious book to help them distinguish between "right" and "wrong".

Christians such as yourself are :loser:s with which the rest of humanity are forced to live.
 

chickenman

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Whether or not people try to claim for clemency on the grounds of diminished responsibility, despite being fully compos mentis is a separate issue from whether it's justified to execute the genuinely mentally ill though.

I disagree. If it becomes absolutely unjust "to execute the genuinely mental ill", then the courts will start to resemble a mental asylum with a revolving door.
 
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