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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bull_derrick who wrote (22872)	3/3/2005 10:01:04 AM
From: kodiak_bull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

Morning Derrick, This is Day Nine of the Influenzal Capitivity, but there are signs that it is coming to an end. I'm actually up at this hour, for one. I'm sitting up without dreaming constantly of lying down. Don't misunderstand my point; I wouldn't have a problem if they made the cutoff age for executions 17 or 16 instead of 18. Most people would agree that they would want a cutoff period. 12-year old Johnny gets really angry at his friends and brings his father's shotgun to school and kills 3. Gas chamber? Well, in the vengeance school of thought, yes, but in the legal system we have, one of the elements of criminal culpability is comprehension of the act and its consequences, so, no. We have the insanity defense (abused, most likely), diminished capacity defense and certain age shields. On the age issue, the question is, since you have to draw a line, where do you draw it? On the Malvo thing, I probably disagree on whether or not the kid should fry. John Muhammad, oh yeah. The kid? Probably not, even given the sang froid of the Maryland murders. The constitution has this great cover it all phrase, "cruel & unusual" punishment which at the time meant to cover and forbid the Old World punishments of drawing and quartering, slow disembowelment (see Braveheart), burning at the stake, etc. It certainly didn't cover executions, and would not have put an end to hanging, firing squads or the more modern creations of the electric chair, gas chamber or lethal injection. All of those methods are seen, properly, as relatively merciful ways to carry out capital punishment. But, we are a democracy, and we have the right to govern ourselves, which means we have the right to get it wrong and try again. Did the Court get this one wrong? Kb