BS: Death Penalty

Subject: RE: BS: Death Penalty
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Feb 23 - 03:02 PM

Charmion..I'd prefer terms like 'neutral' and 'standardized' rather than those loaded ones.. but I guess we sort of agree on the concept.

Subject: RE: BS: Death Penalty
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Feb 23 - 05:14 PM

But it is ritualistic. The time and place and method are all pre-determined. All the steps are laid out in advance. It is cold-blooded. Pre-planned, pre-organised if you like, a long time after the crime that provoked it, the very essence of cold-bloodedness. It is a human being that you're killing. It is sanctioned by the state. My characterisation is intended to be unemotional and, above all, accurate. If that makes you uncomfortable and wanting to rail against the words, I see that as your problem. Please feel free to express my statement in whatever euphemisms you prefer. You might not like the words, but they do no more than describe what is being done. I would find it quite hard to describe the deliberate and premeditated killing of a bound person in terms that could be described as prosaic, but maybe you could do better.

Subject: RE: BS: Death Penalty
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Feb 23 - 06:23 PM

I'm not 'railing'.. I'm just expressing my opinion of the linguistics.

Words carry emotive power. "Ritual" feels, at least in my experience, to indicate psychological intensity. 'Routine' is closer to what I'd call it. Of course it has some standard preparations and details, and 'some' of those who participate may be 'cold-blooded' in their attitude.

*shrug* euphemisms come in many flavors.
I have no doubt that opposition to the practice is likely to cause one to choose 'stronger' terms. So, because I am only 97.2385% opposed, I pick more restrained words.

'nuff said..

Subject: RE: BS: Death Penalty
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Feb 23 - 06:42 PM

My words are hardly unrestrained. They characterise the process fairly accurately. "Standard" and "routine" are not accurate by any standards when it comes to describing a process that is extreme in its exceptional nature.

Subject: RE: BS: Death Penalty
From: Neil D
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 03:22 AM

in the last 50 years in the US 190 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row, a pretty strong argument against the death penalty.
Then there's this from a NY Times article: Black lives do not matter nearly as much as white ones when it comes to the death penalty, a new study has found. Building on data at the heart of a landmark 1987 Supreme Court decision, the study concluded that defendants convicted of killing white victims were executed at a rate 17 times greater than those convicted of killing Black victims.

Subject: RE: BS: Death Penalty
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Mar 23 - 06:01 AM

I have seen the mass executions in China of several hundred people at a time. The death penalty is ugly no matter what the numbers say.