Well, LEGO, I must say that was worth waiting for. A flawless exhibition of some great psychology.

First there was the wonderful demonstration of Kohlberg's stage 3 of moral development, drifting slightly into stage 4 but then coasting back to the pre-conventional stage 2 and just touching on stage 1. Absolutely textbook!

See my comment on juries above.

Once again we are seeing the Corby extravaganza where crime does pay to the criminal or criminals, they, and their extended families are like politicians with their snouts in the trough, for goodness sake they are criminals, they knew what they were doing at the time, the Bali nine would have been very wealthy if their drug plan had worked, they would not have worried too hoots about the people affected by their drug dealings, it only concerned us, we will be wealthy, the families themselves possibly knew what they were up to, if it succeeds we will be helped out financially.
Women's Day, New Idea, TV channels and Media will be paying thousands of dollars to families to tell their stories of their hardship and distress at the doings of their drug dealing sons and daughter, this is completely wrong, it proves crime pays, so why do we all not join them if the money tree brings us wealth either way.
One does not condone the death penalty but drug smugglers have to learn their lesson that prison for life being mandatory, these people if returned to Australia would perhaps have spent six months in jail, released, and then back to the lucrative drug smuggling game.
Drug smuggling in Asia is the death penalty, you know that before you start your game of hide and seek.

Hi there CRAIG MINNS & LEGO...

I've read with some interest, while you two tease out the relevant facts associated with capital crime and punishment per se. Believe it or not as a retired copper with direct experience with investigating serious crimes, I don't support the use of Capital Punishment, either as a deterrent or as a punishment.

As I've stated ad nauseam, both here and in other forums, those North American States, where they continue to practice Capital Punishment, it is not used as any sort of deterrent. Rather, as the title implies, it's a 'punishment' nothing else.

All this talk of they were young and didn't know what they were doing, they knew alright, the dollar sign was foremost in their mind, at the tender age they were caught one was already employed and conscripted for war games, so please stop the young and innocent scenario. which the do gooders prattle on about, get in the real world.

LEGO,

We can still reduce them without execution.

<<Drug abuse can no more be "solved", Don Aitkin, anymore than homicide, bank robbery, abduction, or rape can be "solved.">>

Methadone programs have been met with a lot of success. Targeting at-risk groups with developmental crime prevention measures seems to have had a preventative effect.

Execution won’t “clean” our gene pool of crooks either, I’m afraid, because our behaviours are the result of a complex interplay between our genes and environment. They are not the result of just one or the other.

1. I like what you did here. You claim capital punishment is a deterrent and to prove it, you start discussing incapacitation instead. An impressive sleight of hand.

Capital punishment most likely doesn’t deter (and is meant to, despite what o sung wu is strangely claiming - any claims that it isn’t have only arisen with the lack of evidence that it doesn’t in order to make it appear as though opponents are attacking a strawman) and the US provides us with a good test case here with it’s different laws for different states, and the opportunity it provides in allowing us to monitor homicide rates as states abolish and re-introduce capital punishment. One of the reasons it doesn’t deter is because severity of punishment is far less effective than swiftness and certainty. Also, those who commit crimes tend to miscalculate the risk of getting caught.

2. If prisoners on death row were executed a lot sooner, then the number of innocents killed would be far greater than it already is. The Innocence Project has already managed to get 20 people off death row after proving they were innocent, and between 4-5 of those on death row are exonerated every year. That wouldn’t be possible if they were executed straight away.

Continued…

...Continued

4. Lighter sentences for the one who dobs works too, and no-one dies that way. Further to what Craig said, however, is that there is evidence that capital punishment has a brutalising effect on societies. One way this can be seen is the increased levels of assaults and homicides in US states just before and just after a highly publicised execution.

5. What countries are you talking about; how does the lack of capital punishment penalty in these countries lead to judges, witnesses, prosecutors and journalists being killed? You’re not suggesting that all of the members of these organised crime syndicates served a life sentence when they otherwise would have been put to death, are you?

6. Not really. This is something that has just been assumed: http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/01/26/study-finds-executions-do-little-to-heal-victims-families/64973.html

The last two of your posts were just an attempt at emotional manipulation that wouldn’t be necessary if you had a good case. One further concern that Craig didn’t mention was the disproportionate extent to which minorities are executed. And yes, before you say it, the higher levels of involvement in crime found in many minority groups is controlled for there.