Kinja reply list

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Kony TornheiserHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:12am
Good!

What’s interesting (and probably a little sad) is that I feel this decline has a lot more to do with the growing evidence of false convictions as opposed to any compunction as to the morality of the death penalty. I’ll take it either way, as the idea of executing innocent people is also my biggest opposition to it.
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  Misteaks were madeKony Tornheiser
  12/16/15 9:21am
  Another factor. The increasing difficulty of death penalty states procuring the drugs for lethal injection. That’s something that no one here has mentioned so far. Some states have gone as far as getting compounding pharmacies to make the drugs in state when other drug suppliers stop selling the lethal combo. I’d be willing to bet the decline wouldn’t be so severe if the drugs were still made available.
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  T_BeermonsterKony Tornheiser
  12/16/15 9:33am
  You my good fellow are an optimist. A glass half-full sort of a person. Imagining that evidence of state homicide against innocent people would influence the actions of Justice Inc. Your faith in humanity is refreshing.
  
  A more cynical person may think that as privatised prisons have become massive profit centres, locally dominant employers and political forces to be reckoned with there is a clear financial benefit to encouraging the use of life sentences without parole rather that expensive to administer and potentially time limited death penalty decisions.
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Low Information BoaterHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:06am
It's really an economic argument, Hamilton. In order to protect the value of a human life, we must take steps to control the inventory of human life so that it does not outpace the need for human life. Basic supply and demand.
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  Dr Marvin Meisner MDLow Information Boater
  12/16/15 9:12am
  Interesting, however the strong desire many of us have to engage in coitus supersedes any equilibrium theory regarding human life. Coitus, as it were, does in fact supersede most things, I have found.
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  Billy JackLow Information Boater
  12/16/15 9:14am
  I am just glad it is TX and OK and not NY and MA! Now is there a way to swing it to more white people?
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BoudicaHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:05am
The top ten counties among the two percent of counties responsible for over half of the executions since 1976 are: Harris County, TX; Dallas County, TX; Oklahoma County, OK; Tarrant County, TX; Bexar County, TX; Montgomery County, TX; Tulsa County, OK; Jefferson County, TX; St. Louis County, MO; and Brazos County, TX.

There seems to be a theme there.
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  MattyWollyBoudica
  12/16/15 9:10am
  Confusing theme at that.
  
  One would think if the DP were such an effective deterrent and all, those small regions that have used it the most for so long wouldn’t be needing it any longer.
  
  The war to end all wars mentality does not work however implemented.
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  Ben GrimmBoudica
  12/16/15 9:19am
  The theme is “terrible places to live,” at least in part.
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SuperSquishyHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:05am
I thought this was more due to a lack of the chemicals used in executions lately than an actual decision made by the States?
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  Emerald D.V.SuperSquishy
  12/16/15 9:20am
  It’s okay. When Texas starts formulating their own chemicals (or brings back hanging), the pace will pick up again, at least until we get a replacement for Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
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  RandomGuySomewhereSuperSquishy
  12/16/15 9:37am
  That’s certainly true as to the executions themselves. But the number of death sentences imposed is way down as well.
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Rom RombertsHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:20am
Eliminate the death penalty. Re-implement penal transportation as a penalty only this time with SPACE SHIPS! We shall populate the stars with our felons because we still don’t quite know how to care for them, or address the complex economic, emotional, psychological, and societal problems that don’t necessarily force, but certainly nudge people down some dark paths.

The movie will be called Space Felons and it will star Billy Bob Thornton and Nic Cage and it will be directed by me, Michael Bay.
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  Thaddeus S. VentureRom Romberts
  12/16/15 9:37am
  Space-stralia?
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  Sid and FinancyRom Romberts
  12/16/15 10:14am
  Penal implants > penal transplants.
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Dave Hamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:28am
“When I am President, I will bring back public stoning in front of each town’s City Hall with Trump Brand Stoning Rocks. They’re beautiful!” —D. Trump
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  WideStanceDave
  12/16/15 10:03am
  Only semi-related, and only rarely do I say this, but I don’t want to get stoned with Donald Trump. Ben Carson and George W. Bush would be riots at any party, but Trump strikes me as that guy who can’t shut up about how his hits are bigger than anyone else and how he can get better stuff but he left his at home.
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  bonnismournedinterruptedorgasmDave
  12/16/15 10:06am
  and hyuuuuuuuuuuge!
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tornadoslackssHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:12am
I bet the Death Penalty Information Center has a very low key holiday party.
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  Tophertornadoslackss
  12/16/15 10:08am
  Sure, but you should see them celebrate Good Friday.
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IskaralPustHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 10:11am
“The Death Penalty is a Terminal Patient.”

That may be so, but Texas is prepared to Weekend at Bernie’s that patient for the next several thousand years. The same Court that won’t establish a constitutional right to not be executed also won’t establish a constitutional right for the terminally ill to be put out of their misery, because life is too important except when it’s not.

If Bernie does end up replacing Scalia with Pope Francis in accordance with his campaign promises, however, things could change very quickly. Given SCOTUS’s previous willingness to interpret the Eighth Amendment as an evolving text whose definition of “cruel and unusual” changes along with social norms, the mere fact of the rarity of the imposition of the death penalty may suffice to make it unconstitutional.
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Misteaks were madeHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 9:20am
Another factor. The increasing difficulty of death penalty states procuring the drugs for lethal injection. Some states have gone as far as getting compounding pharmacies to make the drugs in state when other drug suppliers stop selling the lethal combo.
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RobNYCHamilton Nolan
12/16/15 10:49am
I would guess that the national decline in crime probably plays a small amount too.
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