If you alone could decide what penalty to give the two guys that raped and murdered the Petit mom and 2 daughters, what would it be?

I don’t believe in the death penalty. Life in prison. I don’t see this case as being so unlike hundreds of others.

Life in prison. I do not have a big enough ego to believe that I have the right to decide who lives and who dies.

Life in prison in the general population.

Death penalty. I don’t see the point in providing a place to live and 3 meals a day for someone that murdered anyone, let alone a mother and her two daughters after raping them.

Rape and burn them slowly while they’re tied up.

That’s why, however, it’s not our decision what should happen to them… it’s left to the state.

Life sentence. Supporting anything more would make me just as guilty.

I like @Cruiser‘s idea. Even the nastiest inmates have a sort of bizarre sense of justice when it comes to people who hurt children.

Personally, I’d like to see them executed with a shovel to the back of the head because ammo isn’t cheap anymore. But then again, there is a reason why I’m not a prosecuting attorney or a judge.

Life in prison. My line of thinking is similar to @tinyfaery.

@iamthemob I think if it was left up to me, it would deter other criminals. I would put them in a cell with solid walls on 3 sides. a mattress, a toilet, that is all. 1 hour a day outside alone, with nothing to do but breathe fresh air, then returned to their cells. No tv, books, snacks, conversation, or anything. They should be should live the most miserable life possible.

I’d like to see mandatory therapy and counseling for criminals to address the underlyng causes of criminal behviour. This is a cycle which begins in chilhood and is re enforced at key places along the way.
I’d like new theraputic ideas explored like regression and DMT. What we have now is further hardening of criminal behaviour and people who have almost no chance of ever becoming productive, contributing members of society when they are released, not to mention lives completely wasted with almost no chance of ever acheiving self actualization.
How many of the criminals we hate today are the abused and neglected children we failed to save yesterday?

This is why I fully support the idea of a prison compound somewhere. Some island with a good climate where we can drop them with the means of growing their own food, and then forget about them. I think that’d be a good place for convicted rapists and child molesters to live with their own kind in whatever form of government or anarchy they choose for themselves, and the public won’t be responsible for a lifetime of room and board for these douchebags.

@Trillian Why should they be rehabilitated. I can see rehab for criminals that have not killed anyone, but not for murders. Since I don’t see any reason to ever put them back in society, I sure don’t see any reason to spend any money to rehab them.
As for their underlying cause, I don’t see that it matters. All murders seem to have some childhood cause or another.

Deterrence imprisonment is something I’m not really sure is as effective as everyone thinks it is.

My preference is deterrence enforcement and rehabilitation imprisonment.

For me, I think of it this way: I know that I am much less likely to do something if I know that I am going to get caught and punished for it, regardless of the punishment generally. When it gets to more serious, and more violent crimes – you’re already at a point where your disconnected from general moral concerns and most likely concern about your future. Bringing the consequences closer in time to the actual commission of the crime makes people like this more likely to consider them, then the possibility of some far off punishment.

@RANGIEBABY I didn’t know you wanted an argument, I just thought you wanted our opinions. You have set yourself in one direction and I don’t feel inclined to try to persuade you otherwise. If you were more open to ideas I would suggest some links or reading. Since you feel so strongly, I will leave you to it.

I’m with @Seaofclouds here. I think they have forfeited any rights to be a part of any human society due to the heinous nature of the crimes.

Edit to add: This is really close to home for me, I have no feelings of generosity whatsoever.

@Trillian Sorry, I just got through watching the story on TV and it really affected me. I am not looking for an argument. I use to be in favor of the death penalty, but have decided that was to easy for them. I guess, I am saying our prisons are to easy on these folks. I didn’t mean to jump on you, please forgive me.

I’ve always gone back and forth about the death penalty. While I don’t believe it deters crime, I do believe there are crimes so heinous thenough to warrant it. For me, this one qualifies, yet, I think there are some excellent ideas above, too—like from @Seek_Kolinahr and @RANGIEBABY.

I just read a story about this that said one of the guys that did it took pictures of the 11-year-old while assaulting her. There were also pictures of an older female, but it didn’t say if it was the other daughter or the mother. That makes me feel even more strongly that the death penalty is appropriate for them.

@Seaofclouds It is too bad they can’t suffer the same plight as they so freely gave. And then the death penalty right away. The only thing about the death penalty is that is takes forever. They get too many appeals and while they wait, they have all the amenities just this side of luxury.

Firing squad.

A couple years in complete isolation from other people and then the electric chair. If they are anywhere near people how can we assure they don’t kill again.

There isn’t anything that can be done to them that will change what they did. They deserve life in prison, and if they have awful things happen to them while in prison, so be it.

I also think the news stations here in CT, where this horrible crime happened, should stop showing photos and scenes from the crime. It’s bad enough knowing what happened, but I can’t even watch the news because the photos they show are so disturbing. For example, right on the home page of one local news station there’s a photo of a bed with ropes tied to it. The mattress is one big, black scorched mess. It’s awful, and they don’t need a photo like that to accurately report on the case. :(

some medeival torture technique, like being sewed inside a donkeys body with the head sticking out and eaten by vultures! mm!

Hang them in the public square.

Death of a thousand paper cuts, after “Barbara” has his way with them in the shower.

Death is appropriate.
But I am uncomfortable giving an institution as fallible and corrupt as The State the power to kill citizens.
So until the standard in capital cases is certainty, and not beyond reasonable doubt, then I say lock them up for good.
And make sure the general poplulation is aware of the crime.

@josie

This is the most sensible analysis of the capital punishment process possible, I think, by any reasonable human being.

I’d bring him to the middle of a forest, cut down a tree, strip him naked, push him down on his knees, nail his nuts to the stump, push him over backwards, hand him a rusty butterknife and set the woods on fire around him.

I am in favor of Capital punishment for all violent crimes.

Smear the menstrual blood of a major predator (lion, tiger, bear, etc) all over their mouths and other orifices, and drop them into a cage of a male of the same predatory species.

If they’re still alive after that, then give them a bacon-fat rubdown and return them to that cage.

I think he should get raped in prison all his life til he dies.

what’s really wrong with killing people….those who kill that is? If someone killed my family I want them to die, period. No waiting 20 years sucking up resources to maintain their pathetic hulls of human waste with all their appeals. Do it Iraqi style….when you get found guilty its of to Kalashnikov city, one way ticket.

reading all those respones makes me glad that none of you is in charge of the justice system

@ragingloli you can’t expect a individual to not want the death of someone as disgusting as these two guys, as a person who has lost several acquaintances to people as sick as these two guys, there is nothing more that I’d like but to have these guys die a slow and painful death. But you’re right, it’s, in the end, a good thing that the legal system uses people with no connection to the case to make an decision that is as unbiased as possible, though I don’t like some of these ‘let’s make a deal’ things many lawyers do. But if they get stuck in prison for life or an extended period of time, I’m okay with that. Many inmates have a ‘sense’ of morality as well, pedophiles, rapists, child murders tend not to last too long in prison.

@ragingloli Actually, all of us (in the U. S.) are in charge of the justice system. The rules for capital punishment change from time to time because of it. Sometimes one side prevails, sometimes the other.

@Winters
Reading comments supporting brutal and barbaric punishments as a means to revenge disguised as “justice”, and which fill me with just as much pure and unbridled disgust as the crime itself, just reminds me that for all the technology they invented, the social constructs they devised and the social and legal restrictions they placed on themselves, they are still the same savage apes they were 10 million years ago, and that if those constructs and restrictions disappeared, they would slip right back into those savage practices.

Sometimes, one really has to think that extinction is the only appropriate fate for the Human species and consider misanthropy a reasonable philosophy.

@ragingloli

One cannot expect to violate someone else’s humanity and still keep their own. As far as I’m concerned, someone who rapes and kills a mother and her daughters has chosen to forfeit theirs.

That being said, I would not put them to death, but I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it if they were.

@ragingloli You said “Sometimes, one really has to think that extinction is the only appropriate fate for the Human species and consider misanthropy a reasonable philosophy.”

Sometimes? I think this all the time. We think we are so much more cultured, but really “humanity” consists of savages.

@ragingloli If we don’t kill this person who is a Killer how can we assure they won’t kill more innocent people. They can always escape jail if they’re smart enough. Put it this way we kill a killer and possibly just saved a whole school of children or a building full of people. But i agree, i am against torture. And i also think that extinction of people would be the best thing for earth.

get rid of all people on earth because of a few bad apples? seems harsh. Get rid of the bad apples

But the bad apples as a constant reminder that we are human and nowhere near perfect.

there are plenty of reasons that can be reminders of our imperfections besides murder. There shouldn’t really need to be a law against murder. bad apples are unnecessary (unless we want apple sauce or something to feed the pigs)