DC Sniper Execution Date Set -- 10 November

[Havok]

So basically the Demolition Man method?

Well, maybe not with the whole Ice Nine freezing thing, but basically. The coma would allow, however, the muscles to atrophy, so arousal from the coma for medical evaluation would, I presume, be more frequent than the sentences imposed there. This has the added benefit of keeping an inmate physically weak and less able to harm others. Further, since in a coma there is no brain activity to speak of, you don't need to worry about the inmates dreaming or perceiving the passage of time. They go to sleep in January and wake up for a few days in March, or whatever the interval would be.

So they wouldn't even feel the passage of time? Not much of a punishment.

[Broomstick]

So, for those death penalty opponents here who think prison is a viable alternative--would you at least consider the death penalty for guys who murder for kicks in prison after already being jailed for life for murder?

With me, it's the "rabid dog" test: if the person can be safely contained so they can't harm anyone else then we are obligated (on a moral level, obviously not on a legal one) to allow him to live, although that will be a confined life. If the person can NOT be rendered harmless then we are justified in killing him as a means of defending others from him. However, this must be done without malice - it's not the fault of a dog if he is rabid, but he is still rabid and a danger to others. He must be eliminated, but it would be immoral to add to his suffering.

There are people who murder once and never again. Even a few who find a way to do good even after such a reprehensible act. I can not condone putting those people to death. However, someone who even when imprisoned is still a deadly threat to others is a rabid dog.

[Alferd Packer]

So they wouldn't even feel the passage of time? Not much of a punishment.

Well, why does it have to be a punishment? I think it's more about minimizing the threat. You take an extremely dangerous individual with nothing but time and turn him into a weakling that's only aware a handful of days of the year. I mean, when they wake up, they'll of course know that two months or whatever have passed. Personally, I think that's a pretty severe punishment, all things considered.

Also, the prisoner would have the rather unique experience of his life literally flying by. Let's say he's awake for two weeks out of the year. To him, time is passing 26 times faster than the rest of us. If he lives for fifty years while serving this term, he'll have experienced less than two. Remember, he's still aging, so in those few years he'll go from a young man to an old one. That in itself seems like a pretty severe punishment, though it might by lost on a truly psychopathic killer.

But, this is increasingly hypothetical. It seems like it's not medically possible to safely induce coma for the periods of time my situation demands. I only raised it to see what circumstance might allow those issues of contention to be satisfied, and if they could practically or even possibly exist.

[loomer]

How does that satisfy the need for vengeance, though? As much as people decry it, it's a component of the penal system and always will be because it's a basic part of human nature. If the system doesn't satisfy that need, the victims may do it themselves, or their families might.