Unintended consequences of this may be worse for children than the legal and ethical hurdles this would have to overcome.
Texas will consider death penalty for repeat sexual predators
Texas lawmakers are talking tough about cracking down on sexual predators who prey on children. Some propose the death penalty for repeat offenders, potentially creating hundreds more death row inmates in a state that already executes more than any other.
Other ideas include mandatory long sentences for first-time offenders or eliminating probation.
But opposition is flaring from unexpected sources: prosecutors and victim advocates.
They fear some of the proposals would make it harder to get convictions and, perhaps, put children in even more danger by giving molesters incentive to kill the only potential witness to their crimes.
And there’s the question of whether the death penalty in sex offenses is even constitutional.
“We support the intent,” said Torie Camp of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault. “We’re concerned about the unintended consequences.”
My vote? Let the families of the victims “handle it.”
Personally, if my kid were a victim of some jackass’ little fantasies, give me 5 minutes alone with him in a room with no windows or consequences. I’d save the taxpayers a bunch of money.
2,
Legalize prostitution?
What, I wonder, would be the effect on a child when told that someone was put to death because of him/her? No doubt, it’s a difficult question, without a quick and easy answer.
I agree with the other guy, if it was my kid the perp would be way better off if the cops got to him before I did. There are places in the South Carolina swamps where he’d be a fossil before anybody ever found him.
It just might save the taxpayers and society a lot of money if there were treatment programs available. Yet, as long as the American penal system depends upon punishment for correction they will have repeat offenders.
We do ourselves no favors by keeping these pervs around.
What’s it say about a society that executes criminals? Who cares.
What’s it say about a society that coddles those that seek to undermine it?
Darn tootin man
hang them all ! and lets get those Iraqi hangmen to do it they seem to have a knack for bringing a little something extra to an ordinary hanging
I also know Texas is a lethal injection state but i think we could clear up this back log with a nice big gallows
Just maybe a bit of research and testing could identify pedophiles very early and get them intensive therapy prior to an incident. At least they would know they’re being watched. I don’t know if I like the idea of mass screening for any psychological problem, but an ounce of prevention?
7,
Well, where is it legal and too late?
It’s about time someone is actually considering giving pedophiles stiffer punishments than software pirates instead of the other way around.
You’ve got to ask yourself one thing and that is why are these people getting released back into the populous when it seems clear they can’t be rehabilitated? What’s the point of prison if you can’t rehabilitate someone? Why bother having a “list” to keep track of these people when release back into the general population? They should still be in prison since it seems to me that there is obvious concern of repeat behavior.
You can talk about “what if” scenarios until you’re blue in the face, but you end up with solutions like John Kerry’s where parents have no medical rights on their children so that no parent is notified of their 12 year old girl getting an abortion. Why? Well “what if” the father of the baby is the father of the 12 year old girl? That’s why. I wonder how many cases of 12 year olds wanting an abortion are actually because of incest. My point being is, you can’t solve any problem if you always want to cover that 1% scenario whereby the other 99% has to ridiculously compromise. You have to go with the lesser of two evils, whichever covers the majority of the cases and then try to deal with the exceptional cases.
To say you don’t want to give criminal stiffer sentences because they may be provoked to be more violent is about as much “common sense” as saying defending yourself against terrorists will only make them want to kill you more. Since when did we become so apologetic for defending ourselves against people who commit violence against us? And no, I am not a Republican. I’m a Libertarian. I’m not bringing up the terrorist thing to “support Bush”.
Wanna know why shop lifting is almost non-existant in Saudi Arabia? The punishment is getting your hands cut off. You don’t see people killing shop owners over this, do you?
Personally though, this will probably never fly because it will be argued that it is cruel and unusuall punishment. Heck, someone can murder a family nowadays and if you can prove the murder had a bad upbringing, you can avoid the death penalty with a good lawyer.
The sad part is people would rather give the criminals more rights than give justice and closure to the victims. We are a society of apologists and it’s a shame.
What, I wonder, would be the effect on a child when told that someone was put to death because of him/her?
As #7 noted, the emotional scars of this kind of crime never go away, except when treatment is quick and far above average. The vast majority of victims get very little treatment, and their entire lives as well as their future family’s lives are affected. And in the meantime the perps eventually get out and they do it again. Something must change.
So IMO the scars of the crime are an order of magnitude beyond the potential effects of a death penalty. But you raise a good point, especially when the abuser is a relative. I prefer the idea of shipping them off to a far-away island in the Pacific, where the male pedophiles can all hang out together and fend for themselves.
And the lawyer of the perv that had those two boys in Missouri says the jerk will plead not guilty. Caught red-handed, and he’s worried about an impartial jury. Puh-leeze.
Yeah, I really trust Texans to find, convict and kill the right guys.
Man what a bunch of panty waists the Texan are.
In Michigan we dont have the death penalty, but we do have life in prison for Adultry.
Yes, it’s true, when it comes to matters of justice, my fellow Texians have a notable tendency to not think things through.
Lauren- dont you mean Texicans? He He. Actually, not too funny.
#11, What the eff are you ranting about?
What’s the point of prison if you can’t rehabilitate someone?
It isn’t that they can’t, they just aren’t because people like you feel better punishing them.
You can talk about “what if” scenarios until you’re blue in the face, but you end up with solutions like John Kerry’s where parents have no medical rights on their children so that no parent is notified of their 12 year old girl getting an abortion.
WTF ??? So sexual deviants are now John Kerry’s fault?
The sad part is people would rather give the criminals more rights than give justice and closure to the victims. We are a society of apologists and it’s a shame.
Comment by Guyver — 1/16/2007 @ 9:39 am
No, the people like you are more hell bent on exacting revenge then curing a problem. I have heard this “prisoners have more rights” bullshit too many times from assholes that have no idea what rights a prisoner even has.
The United States has the highest percentage of people behind bars of any civilized country in the world. They also have the highest rate of crime including homicides, aggravated assaults, and drug abuse. This is the only western nation that does not have universal health coverage for all its people. And this is the only western country I am aware of that does so little to help reform, rehabilitate, educate, and help those with medical problems. BUT the one thing other western countries don’t have are those who rant on near incoherently about things they are experts on only when they have five or six beers.
I hereby state that this is unconstitutional – unless they make the kids watch, then its just good ol fun (& hot buttered popcorn)
Sounds like your letting your emotions get in the way of the right verdict.
Shouldn’t Texas eliminate the ‘repeat’ part of the law?
#5…Mr. Fusion….sorry….true paedophiles can’t be rehabbed. Most leading experts agree on this. The only thing is to either imprision them for life or monitor them very closely upon release. I’ve even read that the so-called chemical castration isn’t all that effective. It kills the sexual longings, but does nothing for the *psychosis* itself, the *urges* if you will.
I’m against the death penalty, and the first time I heard this idea(not just Texas has been mulling it), my immediate thought was this will condemn the kids to death, and knowing how our justice system works, they will most likely be the only ones who die.
#17…Mr. Fusion…..there are few if any countries that actually **rehab** prisoners. All of the western nations mouth the words, but do the same thing we do, have a few **model** programs that they show off when asked about rehabbing prisoners, but just like us, the rest is just a typical prison.
As to the US having more prisoners than any other western nation….thats not surprising considering that we have at least three times the population of any other single western nation…..it’s only when you combine all of the other western nations that they exceed us in population.
Are we a more violent prone country…..possibly. Last year(or it might have been 2005) the UK had almost 3000 homicides out of a population of 51 million, thats nothing to sneeze at. We have over six times the population, yet our 2005 rate was barely over 16,000 homicides.
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.html
The article on the UK rate admitted that 2005 was a banner year, that they usually run about 1900 to 2100 homicides. But even at that rate, we aren’t all that much more violent than the UK..
But our having more crime, or less health care has diddly squat to do with how to solve the problem of paedophiles. And our incoherant rant rate has even less. Obvious you have never been to Italy, England, Germany or The Netherlands during World Cup. 🙂
Mr. Fusion,
I am humbled by your emotional ad hominum comments. You’re entitled to them no matter how skewed your facts may be. See Joshua’s comments in #20.
I’ve had the luxury of traveling the world, and although I don’t know if you have, the grass does seem to look greener on the other side from your perspective.
Although you seem to be an apologist for criminal behavior by indicating a very strong opinion against punishing criminals for behavior that is unacceptable in our society, you seem to believe that these people can be rehabiliated even though there is clear evidence time and time again that this is very rarely the case. Unless you can prove that pedophiles CAN BE rehabiliated successfully, then your gripes are essentially without merit seeing how I think every pedophiile in the country could have a legitimate case for being black-listed even though they are “reformed”.
You misunderstood me on my Kerry comment. Although I have no deep love for Liberals and their emotional baggage and rants. The point I was making IMO is to not make policies for the 1% case and have the other 99% compromise around it. It should be the other way around. I mentioned Kerry since that was the last public demonstration I can recollect where a public figure went on the record to explain why he felt 99% of the population (concerned parents) should not be entitled to their children’s medical procedures. This was a segway to comments of those opposed to executing pedophiles due to what I feel are “1% scenarios” IMO.
Criminals do have a lot of rights that I as a tax payer don’t feel they should get like cable TV and a college education. I’m sorry if you feel that I am just an evil person for not understanding the plight of a criminal. I think the sheriff down in Arizona whose town I cannot recollect has it right.
I’m hell bent? Fascinating. My belief is that the purpose of prison is to rehabiliate people. I guess you lost that in your emotional rant against my comments. However, I questioned what the point of releasing pedophiles back into the general populous when there’s clear evidence that they will molest another innocent child… meaning they can’t be rehabilitated. If I’m hellbent on anything I suppose it’s not to make prison a touchy feely place for criminals to get cable TV and other ammenities. But the last thing I want is to give a pedophile the benefit of the doubt and endanger another child before there’s any conclusive proof from any legitimate source that pedophiles can be rehabilitated.
If you feel so strongly about it curing the problem, why not use your 1st born or two to demonstrate to the rest of the world that your logic is sound?
In the future, your comments may sound more persuasive if you are less personal and cut the ad hominum rants out IMO.