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ItalianInZuri: vengeance of the loved ones of the victims You would hope that in a developed nation, the law is not built on raw human emotion. I thought we left that to ‘less-developed’ nations.

I fail to see the sense in this. By this logic the State would not be able to dole out any punishment out of respect of the feelings of the loved ones of the criminals. Maybe the criminals should consider the impact of their actions on the victims, themselves and their own loved ones.

The failing of the US judicial system although regrettable has nothing to do with the right to vengeance of the loved ones of the victims. It goes without saying that the right person should be punished, otherwise how can justice be satisfied?

From the Innocence Project. In the last 30 years, exoneration cases have exposed the very real shortcomings of the American legal system. The Innocence Project has represented innocent people who were wrongly convicted of murder and condemned to death in cases that were compromised by police and prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, eyewitness misidentification, unreliable forensic evidence, racial bias, and more. In some instances, our clients have come within days of execution. These cases powerfully establish that — notwithstanding legislative and constitutional guarantees of increased scrutiny for and oversight of such cases — the capital punishment system is deeply flawed and poses an unconscionable threat to innocent people. For these reasons, the death penalty must be abolished. Since 1973, at least 200 people have been exonerated from death row in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). A 2014 study estimated that at least 4% of those sentenced to death are innocent. These numbers don’t demonstrate the full scope of the impact that the death penalty has on the problem of wrongful conviction as the threat of the death penalty causes innocent people to plead guilty and induces false testimony from witnesses. The vast majority of people exonerated from death row are Black or Latinx, and more than half of death row exonerees are Black. Studies consistently demonstrate that the race of the accused and/or race of the victim

Classic G63 it is then. Pre 2018 facelift.

And the loved ones of the person executed don’t have the same consideration?

I think that the current US policy on execution is heavy handed. It’s a blunt instrument and should be used only as a very last resort.

Maybe the loved ones of the victims would like to say something instead

Killing a human being is wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right. ‘Nuff said.

It’s a nuanced topic I can see the argument of removing threats to society but also offering vengeance to the loved ones of the victims. Many still argue that it can only be partial restitution anyway as the State administers the penalty (at least in principle) without passion. I remember colleagues arguing that full vengeance can be achieved only imposing proportionate suffering on the offender

Tom1234: There’s also the documented fact that people with a low franchise, or any franchise, but especially a low one, who, once the franchise amount has been used up, visit the doctor as many times as they can in the remainder of that year - to get their money’s worth. I think there’s some truth to this but it might be because older people tend to have lower franchises (at least the older people I know - always banging on about their doctor visits) but younger and healthier people have higher franchises because it lowers their premiums. For me, a low franchise makes no sense because I can’t justify the higher premiums as I’m never really sick (touch wood). It wouldn’t even enter my head to go to a doctor for a jolly with nothing wrong with me. Obviously I go for the obligatory lady-checks but otherwise I’d rather stay away from the doctor.