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    $7CoffeeJE Reich
    5/24/16 8:37pm

    This case really tests my resolve in my stance against the death penalty.

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      ooohooohooohImOnFire$7Coffee
      5/24/16 8:43pm

      Those are the best cases to ponder — the ones that make you say, “I would like to personally disembowel him with my bare hands. And I’m very glad we have the rule of law to stop me from doing that.”

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      I'm Fart and I'm Smunny$7Coffee
      5/24/16 8:43pm

      I still never believe in the death penalty but I’m not about to cry over him getting it.

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    TremulousCadenceSlowJE Reich
    5/24/16 8:44pm

    Well, I wish they wouldn’t do that. More killing doesn’t make this any better. Granted, I won’t cry when they flip the switch, but I still wish they wouldn’t do that.

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      CurieCatTremulousCadenceSlow
      5/24/16 9:18pm

      Agreed. I’m from MA, and I was actually attending UMass Dartmouth when it got evacuated to search Tsarnaev’s dorm. I still said, when they announced they were pushing for capital punishment on federal charges (since MA doesn’t have it), that I wish my country was better than this. I don't pity him, but I can't get over how we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong.

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      ILikeThunderstormsCurieCat
      5/24/16 10:41pm

      “I wish my country was better than this.”

      You hit the nail on the head. He is never going to be free again for the rest of his life, and rightfully so in terms of punishment, public safety, and the fact that he is impossible to rehabilitate . We gain nothing by killing him. I wish we were better than this.

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    Sorely VexedJE Reich
    5/24/16 9:04pm

    My objection to the death penalty hinges on three questions:

    1. If cold-blooded murder is absolutely wrong, how can cold-bloodedly killing a murderer be right?
    2. Do we really want the State to have the power of life and death over us?
    3. Are we comfortable with the fact that a large number of innocent people have been executed?

    Even if you support the concept of the death penalty as the ultimate punishment for the ultimate crime, you have to contend with these questions.

    Favoring the death penalty tacitly admits that there are circumstances under which cold-blooded killing is justified. In so doing, we remove the absolute prohibition against killing that is the moral basis for asserting that murder is always wrong.

    If you believe in limited state power (particularly if you are a “small government” conservative or libertarian), how can you justify giving government “small enough to be drowned in a bathtub” the power to drown you in a bathtub?

    To err is human, and there have been a lot of errors in the administration of the death penalty over the years. Even if you can argue away the implications of Question 1 above on the basis of “the greater good,” what greater good does the execution of the innocent serve?

    So, yes, Dylann Roof is a disgusting human being, but executing him does little more than diminish us.

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      $7CoffeeSorely Vexed
      5/24/16 9:23pm

      Excellent breakdown of the issues. Much appreciated.

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      LOREM IPSUMSorely Vexed
      5/24/16 9:59pm

      I used to be not exactly pro-death penalty, but not completely against it either. Then the state of Texas executed a clearly innocent man, Cameron Todd Willingham, in 2004. I’ve been dead set against it ever since, and will spend the rest of the time that I live in this country fighting against it.

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    32_FootstepsJE Reich
    5/24/16 9:10pm

    Even here, where guilt is beyond a shadow of doubt, I ask that the sentence be life imprisonment. I am no murderer, no matter how justified the state may think it is, and I want nobody killing anyone in my name, under the guise of “the people.”

    Also, if you prefer the cold hard cash argument, death row costs us way more than life imprisonment per prisoner.

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      b-rar32_Footsteps
      5/24/16 9:18pm

      The best argument against capital punishment in cases like this is that it elevates him to martyr status among the human trash that applauds what he did. Give him three hots and a cot, show him the humanity he denied his victims, and prevent him from ever becoming a rallying cry.

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    ZabellaJE Reich
    5/24/16 9:26pm

    My objection to the death penalty is the frequency with which innocent people are executed. That won’t apply in this case.

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      Marylee111Zabella
      5/25/16 7:47am

      Same.

      Well, I also think that it can be used a little too casually. If you kill a single person in a fit of rage, I think it’s possible that you are not necessarily irredeemable, so you shouldn’t be executed.

      This guy, though? Planned and executed the assassination of a whole bunch of people, in a church with children, while they welcomed him with open arms, because of their race? And we are 100% sure it was him and he keeps insisting it was the right thing? He most certainly deserves the death penalty.

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    SqarrJE Reich
    5/24/16 8:42pm

    Very, very few people actually deserve it.

    He happens to be one of the proud few.

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      Stig-a-saw-us wrecks loves nuclear power.Sqarr
      5/25/16 8:29am

      Ever notice how some approved comments get thrown at the bottom below the greys? I wonder why.

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      SqarrStig-a-saw-us wrecks loves nuclear power.
      5/25/16 12:22pm

      Kinja glitch.

      Unless you mean inside some threads. Then it’s just displaying them in order.

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    Adrastra, patron saint of snarkJE Reich
    5/24/16 8:43pm

    I can’t believe it’s already been almost a year. What happened is no less horrifying today than it was last June.

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      Queen of KingsJE Reich
      5/24/16 8:50pm

      Suspected perpetrator? I understand the legal logistics of “innocent until proven guilty”, but nonetheless...

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        $7CoffeeQueen of Kings
        5/24/16 8:59pm

        They could get sued if he’s later found innocent.

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      IHateGoatsPartDeuxJE Reich
      5/25/16 11:14am

      So, the death penalty. I have had very close people in my life get murdered. I understand why I shouldn’t have the power to punish them because I would love to do to them what they did to my family and friends. It doesn’t work at all as a deterrent (study after study shows this). But it does remove a person from our population. In my opinion, there are times for it. What do you do when you have a lifer who keeps killing people in prison? Those people were sent to jail and got the death penalty instead. What are you going to do to the murderer? They are already a lifer.

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        ZabellaJE Reich
        5/24/16 9:34pm

        By the time a death sentence would be carried out, there would be a new president. I don’t think any of the candidates would do anything to stand in the way of the execution, and President Drumpf would televise it.

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