Norway torturing prison inmates?

You cannot murder one who has forfeited their humanity.

Concerning slavery people didn't choose to be enslaved. But murderers choose to murder.
Sorry, but if there is no doubt about it with overwhelming evidence and the murderer admits it under no duress.....what is the rationale for not putting them down again?
Oh yes, we'll feel better about ourselves.

From your perspective, is such a thing even possible?

Everything should be on a case-by-case basis. A guy kills 77 people in front of God and everybody, there's not much grey area. If you can't see why he should be taken off this Earth
you are too far gone to argue with.

Actually, what I was really asking was this: Is there any action a human being, A, could commit against another human being, B, such that A loses his "Basic Human Rights?"

Human centipede.

And inevitably it will change back and endorse the death penalty again.

We've banned the death penalty before you know. In the 1960s.

And a nation that allows a murderer to continue to live is NOT civilized.

I think "gutless" is more accurate.

Are you entirely sure the federal government should have the power to execute those it sees fit?

I'm not asking whether or not some people deserve to die. That's not the question.

I'm asking if you want the federal government to have the power to decide who gets executed, and for what.

No, I want state and local governments (judge & jury) to decide who gets executed. The people that are closest to both the victims and the accused.

We already give the federal govt. the powers to decide who lives or dies on a grand scale due to its power to wage war....

Yeah, but the Noggies are almost as programmed as the North Koreans, so I wouldn't regard them as a prime template for the rest of the world.

Because that provides for a fair and impartial trial.

Ummm.......if you do your own killing and get caught, you end up in prison. You might think you were in the right killing them, but the jury may not. It's a crap-shoot I wouldn't want to lose.

The lesson there is that you best not do any killing if you aren't prepared to accept the punishment. Make sure it's worth a lifetime of freedom before pulling that trigger.

If you make it about his one guy, then sure. But the safety pf the public depends on much else. And you, as we know, are unwilling or unable to consider the full societal impacts of rehabilitative versus restributive punishments.

As soon as the means exists to restore a murder victim to life....then I'm willing to consider rehabilitative punishments for murderers.

Query: just how effective has rehabilitation been on psychopaths? I don't know of many that can be rehabilitated to the point that they can ever safely rejoin society. Especially those that feel mo remorse when they take a life.

Unless I've been lied to, countries like Norway have both lower crime rates and lower rates of reoffending than the USA? Meaning that in terms of reducing criminals impact on their society their system works better.

He certainly deserves worse treatment than he is getting, however that's the problem with looking at individual cases. Most criminals in max security would "deserve" worse treatment than they are getting.

So the question becomes what is better, a system that better satisfies societies cravings for revenge, or one that delivers better outcomes?

I say we give him only EA games, and make his ISP AT&T. He'd slit his own throat in a week.

Then you're willing to create more innocent victims in your quest for revenge.

Of course it helps that Norway is a mostly homogeneous country and tiny as well. The bottom right half of my state, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach county combined have more people then Norway. And we are far form homogeneous down here.....

Rick doesn't get that it's not about revenge, it's about common sense. Homicidal unrepentant maniac + constant threat. Why even consider living with this threat and endangering others? Put him down like a rabid dog.

You're calling Brevik an "innocent victim"?

Three words:

Pee Wee Gaskins (called that because he was a tiny man).

Murdered men, women and children. Sent to prison. Escaped from prison IIRC. Murdered more people. Sent back to prison. Murdered people in prison.

Finally executed.

Edit, I don't think he escaped after all. But he did murder people in prison

Do you think Anders Brevik should spend 21 years in prison, playing video games and enjoying other luxuries?

There is a TON of option between gulags and being issued a year long membership for Xbox online in prison.

When possible, prison should be about rehabilitation and creating productive human beings. But if not, send 'em to the looney bin or take em out Old Yeller style. I'm not convinced that a guy that slaughtered nearly 80 people is capable of being intergrated back into society.

Agree mostly Anna, except I draw the line at the Old Yeller part. The state should not have the power to kill incarcerated people.