Thomas,

>Walter;

>There exists a mentality with some persons that the following is true: “Let us hang the guilty bastard and then give him a fair trial”. It is interesting to note that GWB stated on National Television that “No innocent person has ever been executed in the state of Texas. They have all had a fair trial”. Other states have found that convicted murders on death row in many cases were wrongly accused and this has been proven by DNA testing.

That mentality also exist here in europe, but from the horrors from the past (WOII), each government has a fairly good grip in controlling these voices.

>We are still a young nation and as for your statement referring to the death penalty in Europe, I seem to recall Spain and France receiving international attention for executing people that broke the law. That was in the 1950’s and 60’s.

I know.. I was too early in my reply. I should have said in the past few decades (means that I can remember).

France was bragging about how humane the guillotine was as a form of execution. It was determined in the early 1970’s that a human head severed from the body experienced pain for about 4 ½ minutes. This was work done by the French as I recall. The French were very good at cutting off heads from about 1789 to 1800. Robes Pierre alone sent over 10,000 persons to the guillotine, until he was killed by those who feared him.

AFAIK, belgium (our neighbours) formaly still has the deathpenalty but has not been applied for about 30 years or more.

>As I said, we are a new nation and perhaps some day we will be as civilized as Europe. We will not discuss Nazi Germany and its humanity.

No lets not.

Walter,