Saudi Arabia Public Beheadings for Absurd "Offences"

[MMMMMM]

from Amnesty International Canada:








(excerpt)...International human rights standards encourage abolition of the death penalty and set stringent criteria for its imposition and use, restricting the offences punishable by death to the most serious crimes.

In Saudi Arabia, people are being executed for "crimes" such as "black magic", possession of "soft" drugs and "sexual offences" after blatantly unfair trials...(end excerpt)

http://www.amnesty.ca/SaudiArabia/4.htm

[ripdog]

I'm not 100% sure what your point is with this article. If it's to point out that these acts by the Saudi government are cruel and backwards, well, I doubt that anybody would care to argue that point with you. Does it bother you that we share the distiction of allowing the death penalty with the following countries? That we're on the same list with any of these countries is an embarrassment. Somehow I doubt that that was your point. Maybe you could enlighten me.

Afghanistan
China
Cuba
Egypt
India
Iran
Iraq
North Korea
Kuwait
Lebanon
Pakistan
Palestinian Authority
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Sudan
Syria
The Untited States
Yemen

[MMMMMM]

My point was in the title of the post. Hint: Key word: Absurd

[ripdog]

Fair enough. Have a nice Christmas.

[The-Baron]

Let's imagine a system where the death penalty was only applied after thorough investigation to include all of the technological means available. Then was applied universally without any regard to racial, cultural or other bigoted bias. Would you have a problem with the death penalty under those circumstances?

[MMMMMM]

Given that they are applying the death penalty for religious "crimes" such as apostasy and black magic, the answer to your question would have to be: yes, I would definitely have a problem with it. It might be verified 100% that a guy is an apostate, but that doesn't mean it's all right to kill him, regardless of what the Qur'an says or what a religious court or council decrees. There is something completely wrong about killing someone for changing their religion.

[thebroker]

It's Koran. Also we killed people for black magic back in the day. I noticed Thailand wasn't on your list Ripdog. Was this a mistake or do they not allow the death penalty? If they don't, take a look at their justice system and crime rate compared to ours. I'm all for cruel and unusual punishment for cruel and unusual crimes. Take that bitch in texas that drowned her 5 kids. I'd have her drowned and revived by paramedics 5 times. Then execution. We don't [censored] people up enough for being [censored] up. Don't take me to be a cruel person, I can't even kill a deer. I tried and couldn't pull the trigger. But I could down her, I could down a child molester. People will continue to commit violent crimes until the punishment is worse or at least fits the crime.

[The_Baron]

Personally, I think religion shouldn't be allowed even as a consideration when it comes to secular law. There shouldn't be any, "so help me god", or, "well, I'm a priest so I can't tell you that little Freddy confessed to knifing his sister." I believe there are certain basic moral concepts that transcend the concept of religion. Don't murder people. Don't take things that don't belong to you. Don't use force to get something that's not freely offered.
Of course, within those constraints, I believe laws should be absolute. Murderers are executed upon failure of their mandatory appeal. Same for rapists and child molestors. Then set a fixed dollar value for the difference between petty theft and grand theft. Petty theft sends you to prison for five years, grand theft for 25. No parole, no variable sentencing, no time off for good behavior. It's a very workable system. From the start people know that if they comitt murder, they're going to stand trial, then the case will be mandatorily retried in the legal venue that's geographically furthest from the crime. Two convictions and you're done. No sitting on death row for twelve years. Convicted on Tuesday, get the needle on Tuesday evening. Of course, that would require a government that assumed people were inherently responsible for their own behavior. Absent that assumption, we have to have the bazillion silly assed laws we're currently saddled with.