The judge calling for a return to the guillotine

[Rollo]

Impeachment is slower, but not as messy.

The judge calling for a return to the guillotine

Ninth Circuit Appeals Court Judge Alex Kozinski holds provocative views on the death penalty. In an interview with Lesley Stahl this week, he advocates for the firing squad — even the guillotine.

“It’s 100 percent effective, and it leaves no doubt that what we are doing is a violent thing,” he tells Stahl on the broadcast.

But look past the shocking sentiment and French Revolution imagery and see Judge Kozinski’s broader notion: killing a person — no matter how it’s carried out and how legally justified courts deem it — is vicious.

“If we’re going to take human life, if we’re going to execute people, if the state is going to snuff out a human being,” he says, “we should not fool ourselves into thinking that it’s anything but a violent, brutal act.”

[Warpy]

1. I don't know what's worse, desensitizing people to violence by exposing them to

gushing blood, severed heads and twitching torsos or hiding the extreme violence of the state toward the worst citizens by masking it with drugs. Personally, I'd prefer the latter, but only if they chose better drugs.

[PJMcK]

2. K&R with a thought

I am totally opposed to the death penalty. Our government should not commit this murderous act in our names.

However, if the States and the Federal Government are going to do this, it should be public and demonstrably brutal. They are acting on our behalf and our governments need to be transparent. After all, one of the strongest arguments death penalty advocates make is that capital punishment acts as a deterrent. Fine. Show it so people will be deterred. If the killing is sanitized and hidden behind curtains, how will anyone get the message?

In the interview, Judge Alex Kozinski says:

“The death penalty is barbaric,” he told correspondent Bill Whitaker at the time, “and I think we as a society need to come face-to-face with that. If we’re not willing to face up to the cruelty, we ought not to be doing it."

[Egnever]

3. Yup I agree with the statement you quoted.

If we are ending peoples lives pretending it is kind is ridiculous.

[LongTomH]

6. If we were to use the guillotine, the jury would have to look at the defendant and think:

"Jeebus, they wanna chop this poor bastard's head off!!!!"

Maybe then, they would be more amenable to choosing a sentence of life without parole.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. I'm with you on this.

[ProudLib72]

4. Exactly what I said a few days ago

We use drugs to hide the brutality of it. Beheading or firing squad would be more humane for the victim, but it would expose the truth of what is actually being done -- murder.

[Ilsa]

5. I wonder how many in favor of this have criticized

Middle east nations for employing beheading? Why is what ISIS doing worse than blowing people ?

[AngryAmish]

7. One is a sex act, the other is jihadists killing people.

There is no comparison, my friend. Trust me.

[angstlessk]

9. How do you not get the comments?

He doesn't WANT beheading, he doesn't want the death penalty at all, but if you are doing it, make it brutal for all to realize how barbaric it really is.

[cstanleytech]

11. I doubt that it would have the desired effect of making more people opposed to

the death penalty rather I suspect that it would become our modern day version of the gladiatorial games with alot of people anticipating the beheadings with a voracious bloodlust.

[angstlessk]

12. There would be those :-(

[Ilsa]

13. That was obvious and didn't need further comment, IMO.

And I didn't refer to him, but others.

[retrowire]

10. Ahh yes the "show them the slaughterhouse" method.

It works on those who don't think hard enough. And I wonder sometimes if it's necessary. I don't like fearmongering people into changing their minds but... Killing is monstrous. Do people not know this?

[WoonTars]

14. I actually agree. The state shouldn't be allowed to sanitize the killing.

Do it publicly so that people can see what cold-blooded killing looks like.