The Death Penalty Sux

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avidaloca
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Post by avidaloca »

Personally, I am very well aware of the rest of the world and the fact that the rest of the world is much larger than the US.
The US economy is 25% of the world's economy, so the rest of the world's economy is only 3 times greater. But the rest of the world has 19 times the people, in 192 countries 11 times the size of the US. But intense political, cultural, linguistic and geographic fragmentation inhibits counterbalancing.

In this sense the US is much larger than the rest of the world.
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DHodges
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Post by DHodges »

Is the death penalty racist?

The death penalty is obviously biased against the poor, who can't afford top-flight attorneys.

from http://www.fdp.dk/act/040406_moneymatters.php :
Opponents of capital punishment have argued for years that defendants facing a potential death sentence often don't get the help they need from overworked, poorly equipped lawyers.

A 2000 study by researchers at Columbia University found that 68 percent of all death sentences imposed between 1973 and 1995 were later overturned. Legal experts said a leading reason for reversals, then and now, are rulings that a defendant's lawyer was ineffective during some phase of the trial.

And here are a few books on the topic:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193241 ... s&v=glance

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009A ... e&n=283155
MKFaizi

Post by MKFaizi »

Thanks for the links, Dave. I plan to order and read both books.

Faizi
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Tomas
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Post by Tomas »

Should one come up_against "freedom" ... the purest form of living, you done did the impossible :-)

Brother, Mason

Freedom = Dame
Tharan
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Post by Tharan »

avidaloca wrote:
Personally, I am very well aware of the rest of the world and the fact that the rest of the world is much larger than the US.
The US economy is 25% of the world's economy, so the rest of the world's economy is only 3 times greater. But the rest of the world has 19 times the people, in 192 countries 11 times the size of the US. But intense political, cultural, linguistic and geographic fragmentation inhibits counterbalancing.

In this sense the US is much larger than the rest of the world.
You should parse this observation further and understand the distribution of wealth within the US itself. If the US is 25% of the world economy and in the United States at the end of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of the wealth, and the top 1% controlled 38%. On the other hand, the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the total wealth*, this translates to approximately 3 million American individuals and households effectively controlling 10-12% of the world economy.

Most of us Americans have to live amongst the fabulously wealthy. It is all around us. But it is not us. We pretend we are middle class. And please don't forget that America has vast tracks of poverty as well. The blatant hypocrisy and disdain is something the rest of the world should feel some gratitude for not having to have in your face on a daily basis. It is the classic seed of discontent and revolution.

*from Wikipedia.
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