Who thinks the Cold Blood killers shouldnt have been hanged?

[ginscpy]

A Kansas family who was destroyed ...

The kicker is Robert Blake who played one of the killers murdered his girlfriend.

 

[IanC]

I dont believe in capital punishment. put me down on the 'shouldn't' side.

 

[NoNukes]

I dont believe in capital punishment. put me down on the 'shouldn't' side.

Same here.

 

[jan]

Sometimes death is a blessing...why benefit cold blooded killers with death when we can make them suffer for their crimes while doing hard time in prison?

 

[George Costanza]

A Kansas family who was destroyed ...

The kicker is Robert Blake who played one of the killers murdered his girlfriend.

A terrible, terrible crime. The actual killers were Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. As you mention, Robert Blake (who portrayed Perry Smith in the movie, "In Cold Blood") had to deal with his own, real-life murder charges long after he portrayed Perry Smith in the movie. As I recall, he was not convicted of murdering his girl friend, however.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Blake_(actor)

The killings took place in 1959. Truman Capote wrote about it in his famous book, "In Cold Blood," which was later made into the move starring Robert Blake. Wiki has an excellent treatment of the entire story:

In Cold Blood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Do I think the killers should have been hung? No. Death penalty supporters need to understand that it is not the severity of the crime that justifies state-sponsored executions. It doesn't matter how terrible the crime - a civilized society does not give in to the perfectly normal desire for revenge, which get stronger the worse the crime.

LWOP for the killers? Of course. Consider this. Charles Manson is rotting in prison. He has been there since when - 1969 or so? And he will die there. If you want revenge, I can't imagine a better way to get it. I cannot speak for others, but I get IMMENSE satisfaction out of knowing that while I am going about my daily affairs a free man, Charles Manson and scum like him, don't have any daily affairs at all to attend to other than getting up, eating, droning through the day, trying to keep from being beaten up, raped or shanked and then going back to bed that night.

Compare a life like that to death by lethal injection. If you had to make the choice, which would you take?

But all of that aside, the death penalty is simply morally wrong. I am sad that California did not see fit to abolish it last Tuesday.

 

[Meathead]

What a lot of people don't understand is that people adapt. For Manson, prison was home long before the "family" trials. In prison they say you do one year hard time. It is in the nature of even the most heinous humans to adjust. Small pleasures that we take for granted become very significant and looked forward too as we might a night on the town or some new toy/gadget and Ramen noodles become steak dinners.

The idea that all prisoners suffer horribly in prison, while often spewed, is simply not true. They are fed and have medical care without having to work (Democrats by definition), are allowed visitors and can use canteen if they have money.

 

[George Costanza]

What a lot of people don't understand is that people adapt. For Manson, prison was home long before the "family" trials. In prison they say you do one year hard time. It is in the nature of even the most heinous humans to adjust. Small pleasures that we take for granted become very significant and looked forward too as we might a night on the town or some new toy/gadget and Ramen noodles become steak dinners.

The idea that all prisoners suffer horribly in prison, while often spewed, is simply not true. They are fed and have medical care without having to work (Democrats by definition), are allowed visitors and can use canteen if they have money.

Valid point. I may be making the mistake of judging other people's insides on the basis of my insides. Still in all, looking at it objectively, I would much rather be in my shoes than his, wouldn't you?

Oh - with regard to your comment on Democrats? Stuff it!

 

[freedombecki]

Sometimes death is a blessing...why benefit cold blooded killers with death when we can make them suffer for their crimes while doing hard time in prison?

That seems a satisfying theory, but it doesn't pan out as suffering for the crime committed: sociopaths will not reciprocate with remorse, because there isn't any.

Renaulto Sabbatini's dissertation, "The Psychopath's Brain--Tormented Souls, Diseased Brains" concludes this: [SIZE=+1]"[SIZE=+1]...[/SIZE]there is a reasonable body of coherent evidence that sociopaths have a dysfunction of the frontal brain.[/SIZE]"

[SIZE=-1]Here's their illustration series from the link:
[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PET images of the brain of a normal person (left), a murderer with deprived background (middle) and a murderer with non-deprived background (right). Areas in red and yellow show a higher metabolic activity, and in black and blue of lower metabolic activity. The brain of a sociopath (right) has a very low activity in many areas, but which is strikingly absent in the frontal area (upper part of the images). Images by Adrian Raine, USC, Los Angeles, USA.

[/SIZE]

Interpretation (by me): Both people who committed murders show a disconnect. No association of action with consequence can cause human problems in their asocial relationships with other people. They haven't the equipment to associate behavior with consequences. It simply isn't there. The light and dark blue space tells it all. It's brain damage or dysfunction.

Some early prevention may have been possible in the two murderers, though that is not crystal clear. Strong associations in animals and humans of bad behavior when young associated with pain (spanking) are developed. Other modes do not yield association of actions and consequences. What did they know in ancient history that led them to the saying "spare the rod and spoil the child?" They didn't have PET scans. How did they know about failure to inflict consequences was something that would ruin a person's future?

All they had was clinical observation. That's it.
​

 

[freedombecki]

What a lot of people don't understand is that people adapt. For Manson, prison was home long before the "family" trials. In prison they say you do one year hard time. It is in the nature of even the most heinous humans to adjust. Small pleasures that we take for granted become very significant and looked forward too as we might a night on the town or some new toy/gadget and Ramen noodles become steak dinners.

The idea that all prisoners suffer horribly in prison, while often spewed, is simply not true. They are fed and have medical care without having to work (Democrats by definition), are allowed visitors and can use canteen if they have money.

Meathead, your political analysis is incorrect. Error knows no party. Error's greatest acquaintance is human weakness.

 

[ginscpy]

the Cold Blood Killers got what the deserved took too long IMO




A ruined a familys life who didnt do anythingwrong

 

[Nightson]

I agree with the punishment. Escape and recidivism were impossible afterward. That said, I somewhat empathized with Perry up to the point where he slays the Clutters. His dreams of a life of adventure were haunting in that he never realized he was both on the wrong life path to achieve them, and mentally and emotionally unequipped to recognize and or do anything to change that. Perry's transitions--from combat veteran to drifter and dreamer, from petty criminal to multiple murder, are terrifying. I rooted for him during my first read to not make the mistakes he did. As for Hickock, he was a waste of atmospheric gases.

 

[ginscpy]

All I can say is the Clutter family was having an oridinary day - before home-invasion goons murdered them.

 

[ginscpy]

Last hangings in Kansas.

After the killers got numerous court stays/appeals, (Its all in the movie)

The Clutters didnt get any stays or appeals

And Turman C. " bonded" with the killers when he wrote his best seller.

Liberalism run amuk