Should the Aurora Shooter be Executed?

[rdubwiley]

[Gregorian]

1. This guy is great.

[Gregorian]

2. Did I mention this guy is fantastic?

I've seen several of his videos, and he speaks with a rational mind. A very rare thing to find.

[Jamaal510]

3. A prison

sentence for him should be harsh enough for a punishment. The problem with the death penalty is that a dead person won't learn from their misdeeds. In other words, a dead person cannot get another chance and come back to life to repay his/her debts for murdering somebody.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. You don't kill someone like this. You study them...

That's what they did to Charles Manson and profilers have been able to see early warning signs as a result.

[LeftofObama]

7. I've said the same thing many many times!

You should see the right wingers heads explode when I tell them that.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. It's true what they said in, "Silence of the Lambs"...

"It's so rare to capture one alive."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. BTW: The Right Wing want this guy silenced before he reveals he's one of them.

[Isoldeblue]

11. That has to be the most intelligent remark!!

You are so right! Having worked with the mentally ill for years, causes me to have more lenient feelings towards Holmes. I believe he is mentally ill and that the death penalty would be so very wrong.

Until, we accept that mental illness is a decease of the brain, the very same as any decease that one can't help, we will be severely lacking in humanity when it comes to it's victims.

This is not to say that all murderers and rapists are mentally ill. Some are just evil and deserve the gravest punishment.

Overall, I don't believe in the death penalty, for other than some rare, extreme cases. But I don't feel that we have the appropriate system to determine which would be deserving of it. I doubt we ever will.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. The problem is too many people confuse justice with revenge.

[Isoldeblue]

16. So true!

I don't feel that true justice can be inhumane. But revenge is rarely humane.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. True justice is for society. Revenge is selfish.

[snappyturtle]

12. As awful as your approach is I do something different. Put him in a

cell with no natural light. Cover the walls with the pictures of his victims and
as up thread, study him. I think your way would end too soon.

[Isoldeblue]

13. Your post is extremely disturbing

I don't agree with it, for the same reasons that the fellow in the video stated. If we lower our standards for humanity, then we are no better than the killer...

And if you call me a liberal, bleeding heart for saying that; then you are in the wrong forum. Go to Huff Po and you may be appreciated there.

[freshwest]

6. Have they gone for an insanity defense? If so, no.

That doesn't mean he should be set free, though. IIRC, he obtained some of his equipment online. That needs to be tightened up under state law. His act may in the long term save lives, terrible as it was. Colorado is moving ahead with common sense regulation in the face of fanatical and uncivilized opposition. It was the Aurora shooting that caused that.

[jjewell]

8. Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58 others...

If it had been one of my family members he killed, the state wouldn't have to worry about executing him, I'd have killed myself. But that's just me, and fortunately for society, I'm not a part of this country's judicial system.

I am generally opposed to society utilizing the death penalty due to the finality of the penalty, and the high number of erroneous convictions. However, I do have a problem with housing, feeding and clothing murderers like Mark David Chapman for 33 years and Sirhan Sirhan for 45 years.

I guess I'm a bit conflicted...

[Isoldeblue]

14. Your points are so well taken!

I also have the same conflicted thoughts about our justice and penal system. It is in sore need of reform.

I've been a victim of child abuse, crime and rape and have had serious revenge thoughts... But the older I get, the more humane those thoughts evolve. But like you, if it had been one of my family, I don't know what I'd be capable of. Especially when it comes to children.

It is just really hard and your words really affected me. Thanks for sharing them.

[backscatter712]

10. Give him to psych researchers.

I'm not inclined to put many ethical restrictions on their studies...

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. his comments are very good. I find disturbing though that even in liberal circles the rejection of

behavior science in favor of the politics of vengeance has now become the norm. When one hears about a heinous crime should not the correct civilized response be one of sadness? Sadness for the victims and sadness that something is not right in our world when we have people doing crimes that cannot possibly be explained by any normal sense of motivation? Of course everyone of the victims of this tragedy are sad stories. Is there not something very sad about the tragic life of James Holmes?

James Eagan Holmes was born on December 13, 1987, in San Diego, California. His mother is a registered nurse. His father is a mathematician and scientist. - thank to wiki for that

Perhaps this is an odd way of thinking. But when I look at his age - compared me - he is but a kid. When I had been working in Middle East for a year and a half he was just being born. When I was moving to Boston after some time abroad he was but two years old. When I was turning forty his had not quite yet turned six. When my mother died and I flew back to Western Pennsylvania for her burial James Holmes was only nine years old. I guess what I am saying is he very young and no matter what happens to him he will have lived a very sad and a very tragic life no matter how many more years he has to go - even if he were to be completely cured and his mind made completely sound - even then - in the eyes of society he is forever beyond any and all hope of redemption. I find it hard to imagine that he is living the life he dreamed of living when he was two, nine or six. I find it hard to believe that he is living he life of his choosing.