it's been reintroduced, trouble is no-one wants to be the executioner. will you do it and how do you think executing 5 people a week for the next 20 years will effect you mentally. serious answers please.
2007-02-24 07:29:19 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
Interesting question.
New Jersey’s and New York’s last executioner, Dow Hover, committed suicide. Executioners and wardens in Mississippi and Alabama all attributed their mental and physical health problems to their involvement with lethal injection.
In New Jersey, after the body of the executed inmate is disposed of, the Department of Corrections, according to a 2001 statement, would offer psychological counseling to the entire execution team.
Executions traumatize clergy, jurors, journalists, and others.
Carol Pickett, a minister who witnessed almost 100 executions in Texas, attributed his severe health problems to the stress involved with executions. Whether the person to whom he was ministering was executed was not his decision to make, but his witnessing of the execution haunted him years after he stopped ministering to death row inmates.
Also interesting to know- the second of the 3 drugs in the lethal injection process is given to the condemned inmate to paralyze him, so that observers will not have to listen to moans or see him writhing in pain.
I think that some of the people who have answered your question have really not thought about this issue.
2007-02-24 13:36:29 · answer #1 · answered by Susan S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A good question.
I think that there would be situations made where there were a number of 'executioners' and they would not know WHO was responsible. In firing squads there are eg 10 people with only 3 having live rounds - so you don't know if you actually killed the person. I think there is a similar set up in the us with the electric chair, with several switches and different people pulling them.
I would also guess that a system could be introduced where other 'death' row prisoners could do the deed - after all they would not have long to feel guilty before it was their turn.
Taking your question in the exact context - There would be some people prepared to do it. I think that they would mentally distance themselves from the person, so almost like they were swatting a fly or knocking down an anonymous target (like soldiers in battle - they do not think of the person, just regard it as a target). The issue would come when that 'target' had a face or became 'a real person'. I would also guess that there would be all sorts of tests & profiles on the executioner every so often.
You do have to remember that people did do that job, over & over again in the past & did cope with it.
2007-02-24 15:55:34 · answer #2 · answered by David 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No I don't want the job of executioner thanks, as much as there is scum and evil in this country of ours I would have to ask myself on a daily basis if the person I'm about to kill is truly guilty of the crime he/she is about to be executed for, couldn't live with or have that doubt in my mind.
2007-02-24 17:17:14 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would for criminals who proved to be totally useless members of society.
How is it that when a criminal is killed by lethal injection everybody says: "Oh,it was two hours of agony before he died!"
But in mercy killings everybody slips into a dreamless sleep with a smile on their face.
Obviously,I accept that one of these deaths is voluntary but there must be some weird doctors about the place to get such discrepancies.
Anyway,One jab of pentothal or brevithal E (or whatever ) and you are away into the Land of Nod.
2007-02-24 16:27:10 · answer #4 · answered by Vincent A 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hanging people is a dreadful business. You don't just hang them. You have to take down the body and wash it and prepare it for burial. Albert Pierrepoint hanged at least 400 people and in the end he couldn't take any more of it. He felt that it had all been a waste of time and that it had not stopped any murders at all.
2007-02-24 15:55:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't, I'm a pacifist and I don't believe taking a life is ever justifiable, even if it is to save ones own life. I know many will think I am full of sh** I can only hope I would have the strength in such a situation to hold fast to my belief. I hope more that I am never in such a situation.
2007-02-24 15:41:23 · answer #6 · answered by Mike M. 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No way would I do that. Not even if they payed me extremely well to do it.
I couldn't even serve on a jury if there was any chance that the person on trial could be executed.
2007-02-24 15:33:04 · answer #7 · answered by kiwi 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
The death penalty is rightly where it belongs - in the past.
2007-02-24 15:44:10 · answer #8 · answered by Raymo 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I would have no problem putting baby rapers and child killers to death....at all. Or ppl that kill old ppl, It really wouldnt bother me. I would be glad that they werent on this earth any longer.*
2007-02-24 15:52:19 · answer #9 · answered by Check this out! 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Sorry, I could not take another life, although many of them deserve it. I could not live with the thought of it.
2007-02-24 15:47:34 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋