This was such a sensitive, sensitive case for us here in Australia. Those of us who condemned the death penalty had to concede with the fact that Nguyen was under the jurisdiction of another country’s law; and I’m sure others who supported the execution still harboured remorse for this young man’s fate
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What would have been the result if Nguyen Tuong Van's 396 grams of heroin made it to the streets of Australia? How many lives would Australia have lost? And how many young people will be saved by Nguyen's execution? .........(Ron Goodden, Atlanta)
This guy really means it, right? No irony?
Because, yes, the fact that Nguyen Tuong Van was caught hopefully has led to some lives in Australia not being lost (yet?). But his execution? Honestly!
I'm sad to say it, but he's serious. A lot of people in Australia said similar things. They said things like: "He did the wrong thing, he should be punished!"
The thing is, no one was denying that he should have been 'punished'. I think the problem is that people get confused with the fact that the punishment is still supposed to fit the crime. I think people just have a kind of fuzzy concept of 'punishment' and just think: "Crime should be punished" without thinking about proportionality.
One might argue that when there's no 'scaling' of punishment it makes the old saying of "I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb" relevant again. I was looking up the origin of the phrase: The origin lies in the brutal history of English law. At one time, a great many crimes automatically attracted the death penalty: you could be hanged, for example, for stealing goods worth more than a shilling. Sheep stealing was among these capital crimes. So if you were going to steal a sheep, you might as well take a full-grown one rather than a
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Excellent Post, my favorate point "I live in a country that like Singapore practices state-sanctioned murder. For Singapore to impose a mandatory death sentence on someone like Nguyen Tuong Van, who was caught smuggling heroin in a desperate attempt to help a family member, is astonishing and obscene." So do I. While I have mixed opinions about the death penalty for henious crimes, for something like this I totally agree with sentiment.
Also "A very few executions each year as penalty for drug smuggling or drug dealing would improve our way of life in the United States. Lenient drug enforcement, coupled with open borders, has high social costs. Unfortunately, a small percentage of sociopaths need to be disciplined to discourage the others who find easy pickings in our permissive atmosphere. .........(John Schuler, Portland, Oregon)Im my opinion- There are idiots everywhere and there always will be.
ok, so this is definently posting on a very old entry that you wrote, but I stumbeled upon in while reading a recent one, so it's justified, I feel
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ok, so this is definently posting on a very old entry that you wrote, but I stumbeled upon in while reading a recent one, so it's justified, I feel :).
*laugh* And you should know I don't mind replies to old posts! No jusitfication necessary.
I'm against the death penalty because I believe it is wrong to take a life and it's wrong for the state to sanction taking a life. I admit there are some people who seem so awful that thye deserve to die - but I am not sure that another human should be the judge of that ....
it seems that I have been raised to not question the death penelty, because it's always been legal in my lifetime. But through my attempts to further educate myself, I am becomming more and more distant from that belief. Should another human be allowed to put a value on someones life? Shouldn't we be more concered with helping that person, not just giving up on them? I've always been the one to believe in second chances, but should there be a second chance for someone who goes as far as to rob the life of another person? It's all this big grey area in the criminal justice field, and one that won't be solved anytime soon.
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.........(Ron Goodden, Atlanta)
This guy really means it, right? No irony?
Because, yes, the fact that Nguyen Tuong Van was caught hopefully has led to some lives in Australia not being lost (yet?). But his execution? Honestly!
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The thing is, no one was denying that he should have been 'punished'. I think the problem is that people get confused with the fact that the punishment is still supposed to fit the crime. I think people just have a kind of fuzzy concept of 'punishment' and just think: "Crime should be punished" without thinking about proportionality.
One might argue that when there's no 'scaling' of punishment it makes the old saying of "I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb" relevant again. I was looking up the origin of the phrase:
The origin lies in the brutal history of English law. At one time, a great many crimes automatically attracted the death penalty: you could be hanged, for example, for stealing goods worth more than a shilling. Sheep stealing was among these capital crimes. So if you were going to steal a sheep, you might as well take a full-grown one rather than a ( ... )
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Will now hop over to reply to the next one. It is hard to even keep up with reading. ;)
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"I live in a country that like Singapore practices state-sanctioned murder. For Singapore to impose a mandatory death sentence on someone like Nguyen Tuong Van, who was caught smuggling heroin in a desperate attempt to help a family member, is astonishing and obscene." So do I. While I have mixed opinions about the death penalty for henious crimes, for something like this I totally agree with sentiment.
Also
"A very few executions each year as penalty for drug smuggling or drug dealing would improve our way of life in the United States. Lenient drug enforcement, coupled with open borders, has high social costs. Unfortunately, a small percentage of sociopaths need to be disciplined to discourage the others who find easy pickings in our permissive atmosphere.
.........(John Schuler, Portland, Oregon)Im my opinion- There are idiots everywhere and there always will be.
Bob
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Bob
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*laugh* And you should know I don't mind replies to old posts! No jusitfication necessary.
I'm against the death penalty because I believe it is wrong to take a life and it's wrong for the state to sanction taking a life. I admit there are some people who seem so awful that thye deserve to die - but I am not sure that another human should be the judge of that ....
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