Dear Platypus,

Only if you're going to administer that same sort of
justice even handedly to all war criminals and not
just to a select view. And the evidence against them
has to be beyond reproach. It does not honour those
who suffered and died that we attempt to punish some
war criminals by relying on evidence produced by other
perpetrators of the same crimes against humanity.

@Lexi
You saying if there were 100 guilty nazis, and one escaped and cannot be found, we leave the 99 in the prison?

Now let me make it even more academic
if we do a deal with one of the guilty war criminals and let him off in return for bringing us to the 99, would that compromised your stand?

This is so interesting isn't it?

My point is very simple, let us settle the basic issue of whether it is just to put a proven guilty man to death.

If yes...we can discuss all other scenarios.

My point of contention is the view that putting someone to death is not acceptable under any condition.
That argument cannot hold water.

cheers

Dear Platypus,

You're pro the death penalty. I get that.
As I stated earlier - whether capital punishment
is justified is not a matter of measurable facts.
It's a moral judgement for each individual to make.

From your posts you and many others feel
that those who kill another
human being should pay the supreme penalty and forfeit
their own lives. For me personally - my views are not
set in concrete. It would strongly depend on the
evidence presented and the circumstances involved.

@Lexis

hi...the nazis case
hang or not?
in this particular case i mean

if hitler , goering(this murderer was the coward who was alive and thought the allied powers would give him germany on a platter) and goebbels are alive during the Nuremberg trials and you were the mdm chief justice, what will your decision be after the presentation of the irrefutable evidence by all the allied learned judges?

please dont see this as a type forum bullying
just discussing
if you dont want to respond, it is ok

we can then move on

shalom

why were the nazi war criminals hunted down and brought to justice (not revenge)?
why were those found guilty hanged and not given the cyanide pill?
platypus1900,
Those hunting the nazi war criminals did so for personal gain & satisfaction. They did not do it for the greater good which would simply be to rid mankind of such vermin. The german Labor supporters of the 1930's (Nazis) were no differently indoctrinated as those of 2013.
When their philosophies went wobbly they turned nasty. (just as they are now)
Their executioners were typical of the average cowards whose minds warped with revenge then got some perverse satisfaction of seeing them hanged.
The moral of the story is that prevention is proven to be better than cure, meaning don't wait for the mongrels to gain ground because no good comes of it.

Dear Platypus,

You ask what would my decision be if I was a "Madam
Chief Justice" at the Nuremberg trials - (having been presented
with evidence beyond reproach).

I would have to obey the principles of the law.

I know that you want me to say - hang the lot of them.
However that's not how the law works. Each case must be
weighed and the evidence in each case - properly assessed.
And historically
that is precisely what happened when on November 1945
21 men sat in the dock of a Nuremberg courtroom on trial
for their lives. (A 22nd defendant - Martin Bormann was
tried in absentia).

The judges represented the major victors in the war in
Europe - Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the
United States. The verdicts were announced on October 1st,
1946. Eighteen of the guilty were sentenced to death by
hanging. The remainder received prison sentences ranging
from 10 years to life.

These were the decisions reached by the combined judges.
Which should prove to you
that it is not up to our personal feelings of what
justice should be, that matters - but what the courts
have to decide after being presented with the evidence.
They don't always get it right - but according to the
leter of the law they are supposed to be objective.
That's why Lady Justice wears a blindfold. It stands
for impartiality.