>>>I think I can state my position on the death penalty in about two sentences. It's an oxymoron. "You have done the worst thing anyone can do, kill another human being, so for your crime we are going to kill you." Huh?
>>>
>>>Somehow being against the death penalty has been spun into being "soft on crime."
>>
>>That's coming from "culture of life" crowd. Which should probably mean "culture of (we decide on your) life".
>>
>>> Hardly, except maybe to those with limited faculties. Tough response to crime is just fine with me. I just don't think capital punishment is part of the equation. It seems like something from the dark ages, or the Islamic states maybe. Am I wrong or we the only "civilized" nation with a death penalty?
>>
>>Probably not the only, but surely among the last.
>
>I think we might still have it for treason. The guy who shot blanks at the Queen, at the Trooping of the Colour, back in the 80s (after which she never more rode out with the Guards), could officially have been topped. In ER I's day it would have been "Off with his head!"


I was working in London when that happened and remember the guy was charged with violating a specific statute: "Discharging a firearm in the vicinity of Her Majesty the Queen with intent to alarm her."

It was a dumb thing for him to do but I thought the talk of executing him for it was quite an overreaction.