To feel sorry for the cats living in prison?

[Sallystyle]

Now watching "Inside Death Row" with Trevor.

I feel very sorry for the poor cats who live in a cell, especially when they are in lock down.

It's also a possibility that Baer will outlive his pet cat. He was only sentenced in 2005, a year and a half after the murders, and if he appeals over and over, it could be a while.

expat after that programme last night I keep thinking of the older sister coming home from school to her mother and sister's violent murders.

IIRC she was not the one who discovered them, thankfully, but I could be wrong.

Hopefully not.

Would he still be able to appeal despite now admitting to the crime? Previously he'd denied it obv as the programme showed him declaring his innocence before the interview with Trevor McDonald.

Yes. He can appeal until he waives his right of appeal or loses his last one, and even then he can move to stay the execution up until the last minute. Nowadays, there aren't any who were relatively newly sentenced who were not so tried without serious DNA and forensic evidence, and admitting guilt does not mean you cannot appeal.

What grounds would he be appealing on if he were to appeal?

Oh, all kinds of things. Any technicality that can be found or suspected, loads of things. Some have even been tried more than once and found guilty more than once and been sentenced more than once. They can move to stay the execution. All manner of things. It's why a lot of people sit on Death Row for years and years.

this may sound daft but I always thought people were sentenced to however many years on death row before execution as an extra form of punishment. I hadn't realised so many people appealed and dragged things on for years.

Oh, no, it can go on for decades.

Was I imagining it or wasn't one of the cats (not the one with the death row inmate), attached to a piece of string? I thought when they interviewed him, he seemed to have string attached to its collar?

I assumed that this was what stopped it leaving the mans's cell.

i'm a proper animal rights nutcase. And I think it's fine for prisoners to have them. I'm no expert on the effect it has on the prisoners themselves, but I can only see that it would be huge incentive.

Even if cats were only contained within cells and were'nt allowed to roam, so many animals are starving/dying/beingshot because they have no homes. From what I saw it was only when the cells were on lock down the cats weren't allowed out. The cats were loved (no denying that) fed and warm. That is much better than a large majority of cats around the world!

The space cats get in animal shelters whcih they could well spend their entire lives in are much smaller. Plus the liklihood of them living long in there is mininal since most cats get euthanised due to lack of homes :(

"But it seems odd to want them to die peacefully - if you are doing something as barbaric as killing them then why not make it as difficult as possible? "

because the punishment is ending of their life. not painful death.

Good point, but I still can't get my head round it. I'm very glad I don't live somewhere where the death penalty is used. Personally I think life inside is far worse a punishment.

i totally agree. i dont agree with the death penalty because i dont think it punishes the person at all. i'm atheist and dont believe in any sort of heaven or hell so for me death is the end of it. they feel no more after that and so any guilt they felt also ends at this point. i really dont know whose benefit the death penalty is for.