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    skefflesBreanna Edwards
    2/09/17 9:19am

    Have they considered just not killing people? I find it hard to sell the message that murder is wrong when the state itself is in the premeditated murder game. Not to mention there is not one iota of evidence that the Death Penalty is a deterrent. Criminals either do not think they will get caught, obviously, or the crime they committed was in the heat of the moment with no time to think. The death penalty at this point is just sadism.

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      SmugAardvarkskeffles
      2/09/17 9:46am

      The thought is that crimes committed with no forethought are generally not death penalty cases without there being extreme circumstances at play.

      With that said, I still agree with you. There’s a lot of things in our criminal justice system that should be fixed before we concern ourselves with how to legally kill incarcerated individuals. In my opinion, all it takes is one innocent person being put to death before the whole system is deemed wrong on the most fundamental reasoning I can come up with. To my knowledge, that number is not one, but at least 10 confirmed cases (and dozens more that have since been called into serious doubt.)

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    ARP2Breanna Edwards
    2/09/17 9:48am

    Putting aside the arguments of whether the death penalty should be legal or not (I think it should be in very, very, very rare cases), would the gas chamber be a ‘humane’ method, relatively speaking?

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      OnefortheagesARP2
      2/09/17 10:05am

      Not at all. Back when I was a reporter, a colleague was a media witness to a gas chamber execution and he said it was horrific, very disturbing.

      I think I read somewhere that the gaurds strapping the condemed into the chair suggest breathing deeply as soon as the chemcial pellets (?) hit the bucket of water (?) under the chair.

      Maybe carbon monoxide would be an alternative.

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      ARP2Onefortheages
      2/09/17 12:45pm

      I thought about CO2(though I admit, it’s macabre to be thinking of such things). That would probably take a long time.

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    ARP2Breanna Edwards
    2/09/17 9:45am

    It’s sad that over half the country seems to be 8th grade trolls, rather than serious policy makers. “They want clean air? Let’s make rolling coal legal!”

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    lostinspacecampBreanna Edwards
    2/09/17 9:51am

    Just out of curiosity, why does The Root not use standard state abbreviations in headlines? Is that a J-School thing or a style thing?

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      Breanna Edwardslostinspacecamp
      2/09/17 10:02am

      It is a style thing. Most J-schools will teach you AP style and most news organizations follow AP style. AP has a special set of abbreviations used for states that are not the same as postal abbreviations and a set of rules to follow when using said abbreviations.

      http://apstylebook.blogspot.com/2009/06/state-names.html

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      lostinspacecampBreanna Edwards
      2/09/17 10:09am

      Good to know. Thanks!

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    Manic OttiBreanna Edwards
    2/09/17 7:36pm

    I’m surprised they don’t add pickup dragging and getting tied to a rock to be pecked by crows to the options.

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    inhood212Breanna Edwards
    2/09/17 8:09pm

    Our world is turning into a horrific reality TV show.

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