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Brain Scans Used In Murder Sentencing
sciencehabit writes "For what may be the first time, fMRI scans of brain activity have been used as evidence in the sentencing phase of a murder trial. Defense lawyers for an Illinois man convicted of raping and killing a 10-year-old girl used the scans to argue that their client should be spared the death penalty because he has a brain disorder. Some experts say the scans are irrelevant because they were taken 20+ years after the crimes were committed. Others point out that the scans are only being considered because the sentencing phase of a trial has less stringent standards about evidence than those used to establish a defendant's innocence or guilt." In the Illinois case, the fMRI defense didn't help the defendant, whom a jury sentenced to death.
I just don't think I have the stomach for it.
We wouldn't need capital punishment if we'd lock violent criminals up for the rest of their miserable lives. The vast majority of first-time murderers already had violent criminal records. Seems to me that if we kept them behind bars where they belong that we'd have a much lower murder rate.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Sure stops re-offending,
Except in the all-too-common case when the Organs of the State kill the wrong person.
As for the deterrent effect: Texas has the death penalty and has for a long time, and the State of Texas is aggressive about killing people on Death Row. Texas has one of the highest murder rates in the US.
North Dakota does not have the death penalty, and as far as I know never has. It has one of the lowest murder rates in the US.
Anyone who is not batshit insane will look at those facts and ask, "What is it about North Dakota that keeps the murder rate so low, and what can we do to make Texas more like that?" Instead, ideological idiots distract everyone from the debate with their data-free imaginings.
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
Thanks to actions taken by Nazi Germany almost 70 years ago, eugenics is a dirty word in most of the world today. But, eugenics actually makes sense. If this fool is defective, then those defective genes should be flushed from the gene pool.
We have actually been practicing the reverse of eugenics. We assist congenitally deformed and defective infants to survive to adulthood, so that they can pass on their congenital conditions. It's admirable to accept Downs' syndrome children, for instance. As a society we invest huge amounts of resources to make their lives better, and more rewarding. But - what exactly do those children contribute to society? More faulty genes, of course.
I don't have the stomach to put all defective children out for the wolves to eat, like the Romans and the Spartans are claimed to have done. But, really, it's time we stopped working so very hard to ensure that every defective child matures to breeding age. It does nothing but weaken us, as a race. (I mean the "Human" race - I do NOT mean anything at all like the Nazi's, or white supremacists mean by "race".)
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I saw this yesterday:
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