Dying for Drugs

[enquirewithin]

Death Penalty: Two More Drug Offenders Sentenced in Vietnam, One Executed in Saudi Arabia

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #489, 6/8/07

Nations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East continue to impose the death penalty on drug offenders, with two more people being sentenced to death and another one executed this week.

In Vietnam, two ethnic minority villagers were sentenced to death for smuggling heroin Monday. Fourteen others were sent to prison in a case involving 1.7 kilograms of heroin being smuggled in a three-month period last year."All of the 16 convicted were from the same village, and many of them were related to each other," said Pham Van Nam, the court's chief administrator. "They were all drug addicts."


In Saudi Arabia, authorities beheaded a Saudi citizen for smuggling hashish Thursday. Jari al-Dossari was arresting while receiving a large quantity of hashish and executed in Riyadh's al-Sulail province.Under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic law, people convicted of murder, rape, armed robbery, and drug trafficking can be executed. And the Saudis are keeping busy -- 82 people have been executed so far this year, well ahead of the pace last year (38) and the year before (82).

[Swimster]

^^for hashish!!! wow. swim is glad that he dos NOT live in any of these places.

[JDreaming]

A nation state should never even consider killing one of its citizens unless he is guilty of murder. A death penalty for hashish dealing is just depressing.

[ojos_de_brujo]

A nation state should not consider killing anyone for any crime, period.
Killing a murderer is murder too.

[Orchid_Suspiria]

Originally Posted by ojos_de_brujo

A nation state should not consider killing anyone for any crime, period.
Killing a murderer is murder too.

A little off topic but would you say it is murder to kill say a child rapist/murderer?What if one of their victims was your little brother or sister?

[Trebor]

Originally Posted by Orchid_Suspiria

A little off topic but would you say it is murder to kill say a child rapist/murderer?What if one of their victims was your little brother or sister?

No, becuase what you are asking is if we should, in a place where fact and logic is supposed to be upheld, a court. The majority of a nations laws are base don Judeo-Christian morality. Therefore if we allow the law to be governed by an idea of moral or immoral, and as such we are not allowing logic and fact to be upheld which makes us no better then the countrys that for many years persecuted homosexuals for their sexual orientation.

[ojos_de_brujo]

Originally Posted by Orchid_Suspiria

A little off topic but would you say it is murder to kill say a child rapist/murderer?What if one of their victims was your little brother or sister?

Killing someone is murder. No matter what they've done.
Swim has no compassion for child molesters. Executing them, is society's way of revenge. But the pain of the victims never goes away, no matter how much revenge you get.
It does make people feel better to know that a murderer has gotten what they think he deserves: death.

But death is the easy way out, they should at least be left alone with their guilt (if they are capable of that) for years and years to come.

Swim didn't say it is wrong to seek revenge, it's totally understandable. But no matter how good your reason is to kill someone, even if 100% of society agrees with you, it's still murder.

And by seeking revenge, you are lowering yourself to the standards of the ones you despise.

[podge]

Execution is the easy way out for real criminal's.......rapist's,paedophile's. Let them rot. Execution should never be an option.

[snapper]

Killing is easier than locking someone in a cement box for years on end. Plus is keeps the blood off of everyone's hands, and prevents the government from stooping to their level. Remember, if the government has the power to kill, it can always be used indiscriminately. If you have to kill someone who wronged you or someone you love, do it yourself but do not give that power to the government.
Not to mention the amount of erroneous executions which have already been committed...
However, regardless execution is totally inappropriate for people convicted of non-violent crimes !

[enquirewithin]

Saudi is a one of the world's most oppressive states, but as long as the House of Saud cooperates with the West, we forget are supposed to forget that.

[JDreaming]

Originally Posted by Orchid_Suspiria

A little off topic but would you say it is murder to kill say a child rapist/murderer?What if one of their victims was your little brother or sister?

I don't know if I support the death penalty for murderers or not... on the one hand, I simply cannot summon up the empathy to feel bad for a guy who killed a bunch of innocent people and now is getting cyanide in his arm. The world's better without him. On the other hand, allowing the government to kill its murderers always results in at least a few innocents being executed as well. I'm kinda indifferent as to whether convicted murderers should be killed or just jailed forever.

I do know this though: Execution for drug offenses is fucking nuts.

[Swimster]

swim would want to die, if he had life in prison.

[Swimster]

swim would extremely agree with non-executuion of child molestors\murders\killers, because like many say, it is worse than death.

besides all of this, swim believes only a killer should have a mega sentence for killing an innocent, other than that, if they got pissed off at someone who slept with ther wife, and they shot someone, it should be minor.

[Nacumen]

"Killing is easier than locking someone in a cement box for years on end."

Easier on the basic level, but in the United States, it is not easier, or cheaper. There is a very long and drawn out appeals process for those sentenced to death, which invariably ends up costing more money than it would just to keep the offender in jail.

[Alfa]

Since western societies are becoming more violent, it seems to me politics will eventually become more right wing. Thus more in favour of death penalty.