As We Ponder the Death Penalty

[GrpCaptMandrake]

Has anyone ever noticed the layout of the "lethal injection" gurney?

Guess what!

It's a cruciform!

We're crucifying people. We truly are. Not having the cross upright doesn't make it any less a crucifixion. See your martyrologies.

Ick!

:puke:

[madeline_con]

1. We could go Roman and make it into an "X". n/t

[GrpCaptMandrake]

2. The Romans only stuck the crosses in the ground

for space management along the Appian Way.

[madeline_con]

3. So, they could be an "X"? n/t

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. Absolutely!

But look at any lethal injection set-up and you'll see that it's configured in traditional crucifix fashion.

I noticed that a few nights ago and it completely blew my mind.

We've gotten into the crucifixion business. Who even knew there was a market?

[madeline_con]

5. I tend to think it's a coinky dink...

just because of our anatomy.

The crucifix was a way to splay them out and make it hard to breathe. The new "crucifix" makes administering "meds" easy. Lying comfortably as opposed to fighting to move the diaphragm.

Do you think public executions in certain countries keep crime rates lower than they'd be without them?

Is that just fear driven?

Would a lot more people murder if they could get away with it, or is it a personal sense of right, wrong, sanctity of life, etc?

(Feel free to refuse the essay questions.) :)

[GrpCaptMandrake]

6. It certainly is a coincidence

and one just chock-full of irony, to boot.

In countries where everything is a capital offense, one might argue that it's a deterrent. The public aspect is more one of theatre, I suspect. Also, those societies that practice public execution and other forms of punishment are also notoriously non-democratic. It is "fear driven," however, insofar as it is the fear of the ruling classes/castes in those countries that drive the public executions. It is, in a word, the uneasiness with which the rulers' own heads ride atop their necks that makes them the more willing to engage in the practice as a "deterrent" to those who might ponder giving those uneasy noggins a little "help."

But in "modern" societies, there's really no indication that it has a deterrent effect. One of the nice things about West Virginia (if we can be considered "modern") is that we don't have the death penalty. Yet we also have one of the lowest murder rates in the country.

I have a friend who says that if he's ever diagnosed with a terminal illness, he's going to start working on his "list."

Most people in our society don't kill because they never come into contact with a situation in which their innate sense of social control would let them do murder.

Sorry for the slow post. :hi: