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Forums - General - Why is mental illness qualify you to not be responsible for your crime?

Gnizmo on 05 March 2009
highwaystar101 said:
I think if someone is believed to be insane then they would pose a threat to other prisoners. To be honest, I hear a lot of people say that insane asylums are worse than prisons, which I can imagine is the case.

Either way, a punishment is usually doled out.

 Being a danger to other prisoners is not even factored into the defense honestly. Anyone convicted of a violent crime is most likely a danger to other inmates. The fact that hate crimes get you locked up in the same prison as the minorties you attacked shows how little it would factor in.

 I realize no one has answered the question in the thread title proper though. The reason for the insanity defense is because it is part of the ideal that our criminal justice system is founded. The idea is the time in prison will serve as a punishment to deter future crimes from the same person. This is not very effective in reality, but that is the idea behind the system. For the insanity defense to hold you have to prove the person did not understand what they were doing is wrong. Consequently there is no way to punish them for this behavior. In this case the person was acting in what he thought was self-defense. In order to deter these people from commiting the same crime you need to treat the mental illness.



Starcraft 2 ID: Gnizmo 229

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akuma587 on 05 March 2009

It would be a mockery of justice if we just threw insane people into prison rather than actually giving them the kind of treatment they need. Not to mention it would create a lot of problems in prison.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

numonex on 05 March 2009

Give them the electric chair, lethal injection, hanging, guillotine, shoot, stone or gas the murderer. USA should implement death penalty to murderers in all states regardless of mental health condition of the offender. Why should tax payers, pay to keep some low-life murderer locked up in prison or in a psychiatric hospital?

Only 4 or 5 states in USA out of 50-odd states in the USA only have death penalties. The US federal government should enforce Capital punishment in all states of the USA. Save tax payers money which could be better spent elsewhere instead of having prisoners live comfortably in correctional facility or psychiatric ward for many years.

BTW: The family of the murderer should foot the bill of the execution like they do in China.



Gnizmo on 05 March 2009
numonex said:

Give them the electric chair, lethal injection, hanging, guillotine, shoot, stone or gas the murderer. USA should implement death penalty to murderers in all states regardless of mental health condition of the offender. Why should tax payers, pay to keep some low-life murderer locked up in prison or in a psychiatric hospital?

Only 4 or 5 states in USA out of 50-odd states in the USA only have death penalties. The US federal government should enforce Capital punishment in all states of the USA. Save tax payers money which could be better spent elsewhere instead of having prisoners live comfortably in correctional facility or psychiatric ward for many years.

BTW: The family of the murderer should foot the bill of the execution like they do in China.

 It costs less to imprison someone for life than it does to execute them on average. Try doing basic research before you actually spout of some complete non-sense that is entirely disconnected from the truth.



Starcraft 2 ID: Gnizmo 229

akuma587 on 05 March 2009

You know that the death penalty actually ends up costing more than life sentences right? The government has to spend a lot of money on cases where they argue for the death penalty. Some states are considering outlawing the death penalty for economic reasons.

Facts aren't your enemy you know.  You seem to be very resistant to them.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

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stof on 06 March 2009

He doesn't get it, he won't get it and since he'll never be in a position of authority on the matter, he doesn't have to get it. I see no reason to argue with numonex on this one...



I'm a mod, come to me if there's mod'n to do. 

Chrizum is the best thing to happen to the internet, Period.

Serves me right for challenging his sales predictions!

Bet with dsisister44: Red Steel 2 will sell 1 million within it's first 365 days of sales.

Tyrannical on 06 March 2009
akuma587 said:

You know that the death penalty actually ends up costing more than life sentences right? The government has to spend a lot of money on cases where they argue for the death penalty. Some states are considering outlawing the death penalty for economic reasons.

Facts aren't your enemy you know.  You seem to be very resistant to them.

Well, you could save money by communting a life sentece into execution. Afterall, liberals always tell you that life in prison is a worse punishment.

 



Yet, today, America's leaders are reenacting every folly that brought these great powers [Russia, Germany, and Japan] to ruin -- from arrogance and hubris, to assertions of global hegemony, to imperial overstretch, to trumpeting new 'crusades,' to handing out war guarantees to regions and countries where Americans have never fought before. We are piling up the kind of commitments that produced the greatest disasters of the twentieth century.
 — Pat Buchanan – A Republic, Not an Empire

stof on 06 March 2009
Tyrannical said:
akuma587 said:

You know that the death penalty actually ends up costing more than life sentences right? The government has to spend a lot of money on cases where they argue for the death penalty. Some states are considering outlawing the death penalty for economic reasons.

Facts aren't your enemy you know.  You seem to be very resistant to them.

Well, you could save money by communting a life sentece into execution. Afterall, liberals always tell you that life in prison is a worse punishment.

 

 

Hey man, lets not drag this down in to the usual left vs right bull crap. We'd done pretty well to keep it based in reality and intelligent debate to this point.



I'm a mod, come to me if there's mod'n to do. 

Chrizum is the best thing to happen to the internet, Period.

Serves me right for challenging his sales predictions!

Bet with dsisister44: Red Steel 2 will sell 1 million within it's first 365 days of sales.

Tyrannical on 06 March 2009

I suppose he could have been possesed by demons. Perhaps he just needs an exorcism?



Yet, today, America's leaders are reenacting every folly that brought these great powers [Russia, Germany, and Japan] to ruin -- from arrogance and hubris, to assertions of global hegemony, to imperial overstretch, to trumpeting new 'crusades,' to handing out war guarantees to regions and countries where Americans have never fought before. We are piling up the kind of commitments that produced the greatest disasters of the twentieth century.
 — Pat Buchanan – A Republic, Not an Empire

Gnizmo on 06 March 2009

Tyrannical said:

Well, you could save money by communting a life sentece into execution. Afterall, liberals always tell you that life in prison is a worse punishment.

 

 If you would post something loosely connected to reality it would probably make a conversation and debate possible. Simply commuting all life sentences would end with all the factors that make a death penaly more expensive than a life sentence pop up. The endless appeals needed to make sure we aren't killing the wrong person wmke it entirely ineffective cost wise.



Starcraft 2 ID: Gnizmo 229