2008 Mumbai Attacks Conviction And Capital Punishment

[mcgillianaire]

The alleged sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks has been convicted for murder and waging war with India. The Pakistani national is likely to be sentenced to death. Although executions are legal in India, they are rarely used. In 1983, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the death penalty should be imposed only in "the rarest of rare cases". The last execution was in 2004 when a security guard was hanged in Kolkata for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl fourteen years earlier. However, it appears the last trained hangman in India has retired, leaving the country with no executioners! And even if Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is sentenced to death, it will merely result in "a lengthy series of appeals and an indeterminate wait on death row". Ninety-five countries have abolished capital punishment. But what do you think? Are there exceptional crimes that deserve punishment beyond a lifetime of incarceration? Share your thoughts!

[Poll #1559687]

Comments

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I think there are exceptional crimes for which the death penalty is the best form of punishment, but I don't know the best way to execute it. People who are convicted of mass murder do not deserve to live on hard-earned taxpayers money for the rest of their lives. However, if the death penalty is imposed then I think the decision should always be sent to a higher court for authorisation (eg, in England and Wales it should either gain approval from the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court).

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

Personal view: no - and with no exceptions, no matter how grave the crime. That's not to say that I don't think there are some people who may deserve such an end - it would be ridiculous for me to try to claim that I shed tears when Saddam Hussein was hanged - but even in those cases, I don't think it's right that the state actually do it.

Of course this is a non-question for the UK as long as we're members of the EU (or even the Council of Europe), and I can't see Britain ever bringing it back unless we end up in a full-scale war of survival. But it's a matter of principle for me, and one of my strongest: I do believe that the right to life is not one that the state has the right to take away in cold blood - ever. Yes, it costs more to keep someone incarcerated for 50 years than to execute them, but that's irrelevant to me.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

>I do believe that the right to life is not one that the state has the right to take away in cold blood - ever.
Does this apply to military action as well?

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

No; I'm not a pacifist, and believe that there is such a thing as a just war. However, I don't believe that a government (in peacetime, anyway) has the right to kill cold-bloodedly and not in self-defence.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Ah, gotcha. I admire your principled stand on capital punishment but I find it difficult to reconcile a lesser punishment with the suffering of family and friends.

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

On the "lesser punishment" point... is it, though? messicat below makes that argument.

On the more general point: I've never had someone close to me murdered. If I had, then I almost certainly would wish every possible torment on the murderer. But that still doesn't mean it would be right to inflict it; that to me would be closer to revenge than justice.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Yeh, fair point.

[dubaiwalla.livejournal.com]

Two of you have already brought up cost. I'm too lazy to look for a citation, but in the US, executing someone costs more than a life sentence on account of the lengthy appeals process, high burden of proof, and so on used to ensure the wrong person isn't put to death. Usually.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Heh, why doesn't this surprise me? Well, that's me told then.

[messicat.livejournal.com]

I think living is a greater punishment than dying.

[lctrc-gtr-dde.livejournal.com]

I'll accept capital punishment if they make murder legal. But while I can't kill someone because I think they deserve it, I don't want the state killing people because it thinks they deserve it.

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

I'll accept capital punishment if they make murder legal.
You can't kidnap anyone either, but presumably you don't object to jail sentences.