Absolutely appalled by Kenneth Eugene Smith's execution

[Haunting10]

Appalled is too soft a word. I feel physically sick and angry.

What a sick world we live in.

I am against the death penalty. One person wrongly convicted and sentenced to death is too many. This particular case sounds like torture, and to use what the Nazis used on millions, its just disturbing on so many levels.

I keep thinking about it. But what can we do? I'm in UK, and expect any activism will be happening in US.

What will happen to the state of Alabama? Surely something must be done. This was not human.

You think? Frankly I know what I think was the most barbaric and it wasn’t the execution.

So long as they are sure he was guilty then I just don't care how much he may have suffered.

@strawberryswizzler

Exactly. My dad was assaulted and luckily survived but had he not? I’d gladly be the hand to pull the trigger to the person who hurt him. I’m sure a lot of people would feel the same if their loved one was murdered

Of course we’d feel the same, and I wouldn’t even condemn them on a personal level for seeking revenge if they felt they 100% knew who the killer was - though of course they’d have to face the law too then. But I still don’t support the death penalty as there are still too many miscarriages of justice and will be for the foreseeable. You can’t compensate a dead man - not even with a billion pounds.

@Haunting10

I can't get myself worked up stressed out, at all about a murder's welfare, and liberties being taking away from him,

On the otherhand the victim of his,

It's a no brainer who i feel most worked up about and would want to do some activism in regards of,
and it certainly isn't for an Arsehole of a man who killed 🙄 this woman,

That's what i find the most distressing and shocking the crime he inflicted on this woman represents also a crime that could affect anyone of us or a loved one potentially.🤔

The media coverage which tries to portray a brutal murderer as some sort of victim makes me want to puke.

You want to frame it as that simplistic, you’re being ridiculous.

I totally agree op.
All the various miscarriages of justice there have been as well as the moral arguments.
America is a failed state imho.

Sorry to reprise my own question but can anyone actually answer this?

I think everyone’s “monkey brain” or at least 90% support it as it seems fair and appropriate. But most people also use the rational brain and realise that it just doesn’t make any sense in a civilised society on any level. Not least because the state sooner or later inevitably ends up strapping totally innocent people into a chair and injecting poison into their veins because they couldn’t afford a good enough lawyer.

So some here would welcome this in the U.K. then?

Absolutely

Life in prison is bleak. life in prison with no chance of ever getting out is worse. I am all for life imprisonment for murderers

He killed somebody, I'm assuming it wasn't a comfortable death for them. Why does he deserve to die painlessly when he's taken another person's life?

And what should prison be like?

Add in the fact that racism plays a huge part in death penalty sentencing

Yeah his wife is probably comforting herself with the words “He’s no longer suffering.” I’m glad the victim’s children have some closure for want of a better word - as if they’ll ever get closure from what happened to their mother! What about her poor boys over the last 35 years, waiting for this monster’s fate to be sealed. I don’t agree with the death penalty but I did not feel sympathy for him.

This is basically the way all rational people see it in IMO. There isn’t really a counter argument. Locking people up is necessary. Killing them isnt. And if person X is later found to be innocent, you can say “sorry, here’s compensation, but we really thought you were a danger to society”. Whereas if the state killed that person ..

No sympathy for him or people like him.
But put a bullet in his head if it makes you feel better.

Couldn’t care less how a murderer is euthanised to be honest.

Exactly

Generally, people who are in prison, are going to get out of prison and take up their places in society. Prison should be preparation for that. However, that does not apply to someone who is going to be inside forever, of course, but even they are in the same cohort as people who WILL get out, so should be treated the same as them.

If you treat people like animals they will behave like animals

Yes exactly.

Because the hang em and flog em brigade seem to not be able to see beyond the particular crime and wanting revenge. Putting the crime aside, do you really want to live in a country where the government can legally kill people?

And it’s also the impact on all involved in the execution.

those involved in public executions struggle with the after effects including PTSD. There’s many articles about this fact.

DRs have to be there too and that completely goes against their training ‘do no harm’

whether the evidence of guilt is clear cut is irrelevant because someone has to sign the warrant. Serve the prisoner their last meal. To escort the prisoner to execution. To be executioner. To witness. To declare time of death.

and if that prisoner was innocent, I couldn’t even even comprehend how they would respond knowing their part to play in that loss of life.

So not really a punishment then.

That's a ridiculous comparison. However, if someone burgled my house, I'd hope the law would ensure they were punished appropriately. Appropriately being the operative word here

being in prison IS a punishment