US Federal government to resume capital punishment after nearly 20 year hiatus | Hacker News Reader

US Federal government to resume capital punishment after nearly 20 year hiatus

npr.org

24 pointsanigbrowl16 comments

Woah. It's hard to talk politics here but this is hard to read. Unsure if this is allowed, but tough to read how apparently it's a single person, William Barr, who's asking for people to be killed. Secondly, the people they choose to kill first "is a member of a white supremacist group", with the straight up goal of not allowing people to play the race card in debating this. Oof.

Typing that up it really makes me feel like this link shouldn't be posted here on HN. Even though the people leaving comments are are much more relatable and better than other online boards, it seems more fitting to be talked about in another place.

It's been a while since I attempted to seek evidence on this, but:

1. Does anyone know if there are statistics on how executions help victims' families/friends? eg. Does it result in lower depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc. rates?

2. Does anyone know if there are statistics on how executions help crime rates?

Or alternatively:

3. Do we have statistics that highlight any proven benefit to executions as punishment?

A Google Scholar search turned this up:

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/421571

> Results from least squares and negative binomial estimations indicate that capital punishment does deter: each execution results in, on average, three fewer murders. In addition, capital punishment deters murders previously believed to be undeterrable: crimes of passion and murders by intimates. Moreover, murders of both African‐American and white victims decrease after executions, which suggests that capital punishment benefits people of all races. However, longer waits on death row before execution lessen the deterrence. Specifically, one less murder is committed for every 2.75‐year reduction in death row waits. Thus, recent legislation to shorten the wait should strengthen capital punishment's deterrent effect.

Thank you!

Inert gas asphyxiation seems, to me, like the ideal option for capital punishment. Probably nitrogen gas. It requires no medical training to administer, is commonly available, causes loss of consciousness and death quickly, and does not cause unduly distressing physiological symptoms.

I often wonder what is causing us to have such a hard time killing people without pain or distress or the perception of cruelty (as much as that's possible when killing a person). Why aren't prisoners put to sleep with gas and then killed as cheaply (and non-gruesomely) as possible thereafter?

I'm opposed to the death penalty for a number of reasons, one is as stated in the article: the discrepancies in our criminal justice system make it so that black folks are disproportionately executed.

Secondly, this subtlety shows how much power prosecutors have in our criminal justice system. In the past few years many prosecutors have sought out the death penalty knowing full well that the DOJ put a moratorium on executions -- one has to wonder how many prosecutors would continue forward if an execution was guaranteed to occur.

From my european perspective, capital punishment is such a weird idea. Never I have came across strong evidence for a deterrent effect. And if you just quickly look at the Wikipedia article [1], it looks like it's really difficult to say whether it actually results in a more peaceful society or not (I mean Japan uses it extensively).

To me, it looks like something that has more to do with a country's culture than with actual scientific studies arguing for or against.

Full disclosure : I think we're better without capital punishment where I live. If only because it's easier to "fix" a mistrial when the convict is not dead meat.

But also because I think it's to powerful a tool for an autoritarian leader that would get elected and could use it right away. That does not mean that such a leader could not reinstate it in a country that does not have capital punishment anymore, but that would take more time and maybe some people could use this time to realize what kind of leader this person is.

Well that's my two cents. It is only my opinion, I'm not trying to offend or convince anyone else. And I don't presume any moral high ground for my point of view or anything. Just saying how I see this subject having been raised in a country that dropped death penalty since before I was born, is all.

(Trying to be extra careful here since it's a sensitive subject and the USA is not my country and English is not my mother tongue. Sorry if I offended someone).

[1]Capital punishment by country : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_by_country

I‘m not sure such a controversial topic should be on here.

Given that people are being killed for a broken tail light or because they encountered the wrong cop at the wrong time, the death penalty is just the logical conclusion in a culture that values the right to kill more than the right to live.

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/25/federal-death-penalt...

The new protocol replaces the controversial three-drug lethal injection combination with the method that Texas has had since 2012 — using only pentobarbital, a sedative. Texas purchases the drug from compounding pharmacies kept secret from the public, where drugs are mixed without federal regulation. The state has used pentobarbital in 79 executions.

It's difficult to get a hold of pentobarbital, which makes me think these federal executions are going to be delayed.

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