NationStates Jolt Archive

Linktasm! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7132123.stm)

I thought that this BBC article would be a good chance to start a discussion on the Japanese method of delivering death to the condemned. It's been an interesting side topic to me for some time now, and I'd like to see your opinions on it.

Although...

They never know if each day will be their last.

Sounds like how it is for people on the outside.

Executions are carried out by hanging in a death chamber within the Detention Centre. When a death order has been issued, the condemned prisoner is informed in the morning of his or her execution. The condemned is given their choice of the last meal. The prisoner's family and legal representatives are never informed until afterwards. Consequently, there is no possibility of a final meeting.
Harsh.

So people on the outside know for certain that one day someone will come to their cell and take them off to be hung, but they don't know when? No? Oh well, so much for that comparisson.

Harsh.

Quite.

So people on the outside know for certain that one day someone will come to their cell and take them off to be hung, but they don't know when? No? Oh well, so much for that comparisson.

No, people on the outside don't know the day they're going to die.

I'm certainly not saying the Japanese method is right, in fact, I'd say the death penalty is always wrong, but I think that's not a particularly useful excuse.

No, people on the outside don't know the day they're going to die.

I'm certainly not saying the Japanese method is right, in fact, I'd say the death penalty is always wrong, but I think that's not a particularly useful excuse.

Not knowing when you're going to die isn't really the same as knowing someone is going to come to kill you. Besides, you can't really get on with your life when you're in a tiny cell.

Which is the punishment, the wait or the execution?

Shouldn't they throw them to the whales?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7132123.stm]Linktasm!

You link is haywire. It requires an [/URL] tag at the end, not a [/QUOTE] one.

Linktasm! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7132123.stm)

Shouldn't they throw them to the whales?
Fatten them up.

Japanese justice is completely fucked up (http://www.usp.com.au/fpss/prison-japan01.html) anyway.


Still, their recidivism rate is pretty low if I remember rightly..

Still, their recidivism rate is pretty low if I remember rightly..
mainly cause once arrested, there's a 99% conviction rate and the sentences are so harsh few ppl fully recover nor wish to go back.

Japanese justice is completely fucked up (http://www.usp.com.au/fpss/prison-japan01.html) anyway.


Still, their recidivism rate is pretty low if I remember rightly..

http://www.stippy.com/japan-life/gaijin-in-a-japanese-prison-1/

i dont remember if i got this link here or not but its a fascinating 10 part article about a foreigner getting arrested in japan and how that works. and life in a japanese jail for 23 days.

Oh well, so much for that comparisson.

What compassion? Japan is a Confucian society sometimes prettied up with Buddhism.

Still, their recidivism rate is pretty low if I remember rightly..

You don't. Once one gets marked a criminal here it's hard to escape the stigma and thus the recidivism rate is pretty high.

As for the OP, yes, this is old news. The Japanese state justice system is FUBAR.

I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with the death penalty at large, or even theirs. However, it really annoys me to read things like this:

There were no candlelit vigils outside the detention centres where the men were hanged - though this is not surprising since no one, not even their families, was told they were to die on Friday morning.

Why should there be candlelit vigils? These are people who are condemned for murder, rape, and all sorts of evil, evil things.

While many things about the death penalty can be disputed, the one thing that can't really be disputed is the fact that it affects primarily the guilty (Granted, I'm not saying that it's necessarily the case that every single person is guilty who is killed, but generally speaking, if a person is on death row, he's more than likely guilty).

It annoys me when I see things like this...they are basically approaching the people in question as though they are innocent victims. They aren't. They murdered and raped people.

Granted, I'm not saying that the death penalty should be excercised. However, even if I did say that it ought not be excercised, it would be wrong on my part to say that it's a punishment that doesn't fit the crime. It is a punishment that fits the crime.

Whosoever shall shed man's blood, his blood shall be shed: for man was made to the image of God.

It is a capital punishment for capital criminals. End of story.

Why should there be candlelit vigils?

Because someone DIED.

It is a capital punishment for capital criminals. End of story.

It is killing. Period full stop. That should be understood and respected. End of story.

(Note: I do belive that captal punishment is appropriate in some cases. It should be done approprietely. George W. Bush's mocking of Karla Faye Tucker, for example, was horrible and inexusable.)

Harsh.

I find it barbaric even, why should the family be punished by not being allowed to say goodbye.

It is a capital punishment for capital criminals. End of story.

aren't you the new extremely religious person on NSG? Shouldn't you say stuff about forgiving, people only being judged by god, respecting everyone (including criminals), turning the other cheek and whatever jesus used to say?

I find it barbaric even, why should the family be punished by not being allowed to say goodbye.

Because they allowed/created said criminal. Plus it's not punishmenyt for them, but expunging a stain... (All that is subconsious.)

aren't you the new extremely religious person on NSG? Shouldn't you say stuff about forgiving, people only being judged by god, respecting everyone (including criminals), turning the other cheek and whatever jesus used to say?

Well, depends on the religion....

Because they allowed/created said criminal. Plus it's not punishmenyt for them, but expunging a stain... (All that is subconsious.)

?
So you're saying that the family/friends are at least a little bit responsible for the crimes their family member/friend committed? And I don't completely understand the part about expunging subconscious stains.

So, in case of hard reasonable logic, do you wish to spend your taxes and/or resources for people who commits this kinds of crimes :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junko_Furuta

Then again, I can see this debate will go downhill as soon as "heinous crimes" are mentioned and somebody had just to go Godwin on us all... or not.

aren't you the new extremely religious person on NSG? Shouldn't you say stuff about forgiving, people only being judged by god, respecting everyone (including criminals), turning the other cheek and whatever jesus used to say?

Don't get me wrong...I'm not saying I agree with capital punishment. However, even if I didn't agree with capital punishment, I'd only not agree with capital punishment because of my agreement with the Stoic Ethic, namely that, because we are all brothers, that any punishment should be primarily rehabilitative rather than done out of veangence. If I didn't agree with capital punishment, I'd only not agree with it because I think that justice should be tempered by mercy.

What is not my motivation, however, and what ought not be ANY of your motivation, is that the punishment is somehow not just. It is a just punishment for a horribly unjust set of crimes. "Whoever sheds the blood of man by men shall have his own blood shed."

You shouldn't treat these people like they are being wronged in some way. No...they are the wrong-doers, and they deserve what they are getting.

So the argument shouldn't be "They don't deserve this," but rather "They do deserve this, but we should be merciful nonetheless, because we are also in need of mercy, even if our crimes are of a different sort."

Because someone DIED.

And justly so.

Because someone DIED.

That usually warrants a funeral, not a "vigil."

Harsh.

The US should take a page from that book. Well done, Japan :D

I think it's better not to know. I'd rather not know than wait years to be killed on a pre-determined date, like they do in the US. I don't understand the concept of making death row prisoners wait at all.

Linktasm! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7132123.stm)

I thought that this BBC article would be a good chance to start a discussion on the Japanese method of delivering death to the condemned. It's been an interesting side topic to me for some time now, and I'd like to see your opinions on it.

Although...



Sounds like how it is for people on the outside.

Yeah. I've posted about this before...its brutal. Total isolation.

Inhuman.

They shouldn't use the death penalty :(

I think it's better not to know. I'd rather not know than wait years to be killed on a pre-determined date, like they do in the US. I don't understand the concept of making death row prisoners wait at all.

It's so they can appeal the cases.

It's so they can appeal the cases.

and even then they can get it wrong.

This is all a pack of lies.

I've been to Japan, even witnessed an execution. It was horrible. All these people running around a car in a circle while they're at a stop light, switching up the driver.

Oh wait, that was China and it was fire drill.

A man, no matter how inhuman, should not be put through such inhumane practices.

I think it's better not to know. I'd rather not know than wait years to be killed on a pre-determined date, like they do in the US. I don't understand the concept of making death row prisoners wait at all.

Well we used to have this thing called habeas corpus you see...

So, in case of hard reasonable logic, do you wish to spend your taxes and/or resources for people who commits this kinds of crimes :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junko_Furuta

Then again, I can see this debate will go downhill as soon as "heinous crimes" are mentioned and somebody had just to go Godwin on us all... or not.

If I remember correctly, a guy named Issei Sagawa got off scot-free for killing and eating a woman in Belgium.

?
So you're saying that the family/friends are at least a little bit responsible for the crimes their family member/friend committed? And I don't completely understand the part about expunging subconscious stains.

Just to make it clear, that was the reason why, not my own belife.

Yes, Japanese society at large does blaim the family. And the family does often see a serious criminal as a stain.

Letila, that was in France not Belgium. (The victem was dutch.) He didn't het off completely sctot free, but close enough to it. He was committed to a French hospital for an indefinite period. The exact timelines differ in the two detailed accounts below, but what is pertinate is that after 3-4 years, he was returned to Japan and was in a mental hospital for several months. It's almost certain that his rich father bought him his way out.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/sagawa/11.html
http://www.newcriminologist.com/article.asp?nid=17