So here is the new equation

Claiming 300 lives ~ 300x70 years = 21000 years = 14 years of imprisonment ?

Having a soft-corner towards them will only add to their might.

It was said ealier by our ancestors that.. don't hate the devils, but hate the evils.

With the passage of time, it doesn't remain true now..

The truth is Kill the devils to destroy the evils.

regardless of how ever a person wants to justify it, the death penalty is wrong. NO person has the right to take another persons life. To do so reduces us to the same level as the original criminal. While i can understand the feelings of those people who have had their loved ones taken from them and the anger that they would feel.... two wrongs do NOT make a right. Jail them for life. I know i will probably cop a lot of flak for my views but i stand by them.

Wouldn't cost much....one locked room and a match.....bloody perfect cure for that arson urge/curiosity/infatuation.

Put in perspective....population for population.....this is Australia's 9/11.

The only arguable difference is the lack of planes.

That's where compassion and social conscience is needed....not with any arsehole who caused so much misery.

Murder is murder, and whomever condems a man to death, is also a murderer, you can word it however you like, and try and gloss it over, but it is STILL.. Murder.. and 2 wrongs don't make a right etc etc.. it's barbaric.

Nobody has the right to play God.. except God [or whomever is in charge up there] himself.

Murderer's belong in prison where they can suffer, and think about what they've done, they'll cop more suffering in prison, than in a quick death.

Pretty definite way of preventing them from re-offending though....

Excising a cancer isn't 'revenge'....it's 'treatment'.

The thing about capital punishment is if it dissuades just ONE person from a similar crime then it has worked as a deterrent.

The victims of crime ALWAYS have a greater right to life than those who will deny them.

I thought real Doctor's took an oath to preserve life, no matter what.

Everybody should just agree to disagree, this subject.. well nobody wins, it will just go around in circles, nobody is going to change anybody else's mind on the death penalty.. I'll never support it, and that's that.... even though mankind is a vile and treacherous race.

Nimbin, me old mate....we're gonna have to listen to Tailsgirl re debates over Capital Punishment....but I'm sure some 'clever' brief would argue the perps of 9/11 were 'mentally ill' and thus innocent.  I actually don't consider 'diminished responsibility' as grounds for any form of leniency at all.

I'm sure Julien Knight was/is mentally screwed too....but his victims don't care...they are just as dead either way.

Too much 'gosh and gee' and teeth-sucking is done over those poor deranged/misguided rapists/killers/etc and no-one gives a toss about victim impact.

Thing 'dead'....then keep thinking 'dead'....for a real long time.  That's what the victims have as life-experience.

Constant and repeated buggering by fellow inmates of the penal system may be 'cute' but many will argue it is better than dead.

Punishment is not fair and equitable.

It never will be....even with bleeding hearts crying for Law Reform.

Just like Alice's Restaurant.....

"and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy
pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he
sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the
twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows
and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog.
And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles
and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry,
'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American
blind justice,...."

I was trying to point out that if we assume we have no right to exeecute someone, where then do we get the right to incarcerate them? Each plays "God" so to speak.

Actually Doc, I fully support capital punishment. I believe it's no different from defending yourself or your family. As far as I'm concerned that's an inaleinable right. For me it's not the punishment...it's eliminating any chance of a repeat or escape, eliminating the negative influence the person may have on others (like rehabilitatable prisoners) and removing any possibility of procreation and removing them from the public awareness. So many have fan clubs, get married and write books from prison it's pathetic.

Doesn't mean I think ALL murderers should be executed......many murders are spontaneous acts of rage and life in prison is a suitable punishment. Someone like Jeffery Dahmer requires extermination. How "right" is it to put someone arrested for drug possesion or car theft into the same living space as Dahmer or someone like him?

You thought incorrectly: A Physician's Oath has no such proviso in it.

Secondly, those scum are not my patients, nor does any physician-patient relationship exist.

They are criminals deserving punishment. In this case, execution.

The claimed 'justification' was the prompt/subsequent ending of hostilities aka WW2.

Meanwhile the English did their 'experimentation' with Nuclear weapons on Australian soil....whilst the French preferred to just dirty up the Pacific....well away from THEIR homeland.

Whether it's Hiroshima, Marilinga or the Bikini Attol ....none of it was REALLY necessary.

If it should turn out to be islam terrorists who did this, it's nothing but calculated pure evil made in the name of Allah. Then it's nothing but pure hate agains democracy and has little to do with mental disorder.

If it's "only" arsonists, I truly doubt this was made by only one insane person. Then it's a planned action as well by a group of people and should therefore be considered to be the same act as a terrorist attack against a society and civilians. Hitler was also insane but I doubt that anyone would think that putting him behind bars and give him treatment for mental disorder would have been successful and a fair punishment.

This is a great tragedy for the Australians and I sincerely hope that they catch those whoever caused this. Therefore, I totally agree with you - "The victims of crime ALWAYS have a greater right to life than those who will deny them."

"Kingslake, Australia (CNN) Two men were arrested Thursday in connection with the wildfires that have swept through southeastern Australia killing as many as 300 people. Victoria State Police told CNN the two suspects, who had been taken into custody and were "assisting" police earlier, had been behaving suspiciously in or near Marysville, a small village where roughly 100 people have died in the fires. It was not immediately clear what the behavior was or what charges the men may face. Firefighters have battled blazes since Saturday including several new fires that broke out Tuesday night and which officials says almost certainly were the result of arson.John Brumby, the premier of the hard-hit state of Victoria, said many of 20 fires burning Wednesday were suspected to have been started by arsonists, an act described earlier as mass-murder. There seems little doubt these were deliberately lit - a number of them last night - Brumby said on national television."