Armed store clerks?

[rivalarrival]

Originally Posted by blucher

It's proven to not be much of a deterrent. We all die but no one is very happy being behind bars for life. That scares the crap out of me compared to death.

If we're going to do it, we need to do it right; if we're unwilling to do it right, we need to get rid of it. To do it right, we have to move away from the modern trend of painless executions in secluded rooms at 3AM, with a handful of witnesses.

To do it right requires that the convict die in the manner of his victims. An arsonist should be slow-roasted on a spit; an axe murderer chopped into bits. Is a punishment cruel and unusual when it is less than or equal to the suffering of the victim?

It's not a deterrent when it's known only in the abstract, when it's anecdotal statements by 3rd parties. These executions should be videotaped and made available for network broadcast soon after the fact. Perhaps even live, pay-per-view, with the proceeds going to the victim's family.

If we are unwilling to fully exploit an execution, to gain from it everything that can be gained, we have no business conducting them. If we can't tolerate drenching a convicted arsonist in gasoline, throwing a match, and listen to him scream in agony while we remember his cruelty and the suffering of his victims, then we have no business killing him at all.