[Embolalia]

Quote: 
Limitations on Capital Punishment

RECOGNISING that many nations see benefit in the use of capital punishment.

REGRETTING that, in many nations, capital punishment is overused.

DEFINES capital punishment, for the purpose of this resolution, as the removal of a person's life as punishment for a crime.

MANDATES that capital punishment may only be used in crimes of:
i)Murder
ii)Sexual offenses
iii)Treason or espionage

STRICTLY FORBIDS the use of capital punishment on people whose crime is disbelief of the nation's religion.

ALLOWS nations not to use capital punishment at all.

ALLOWS for future resolutions to forbid or further restrict capital punishment, without doing so in this resolution.
[/quote]
I think this makes for a nice compromise to the death penalty issue.

Anyone have any suggestions?

EDIT: Clarified some things.

[Eisophca]

This violates Fair Sentencing Act. (I'm working on a repeal of it though.)

[Embolalia]

Oh, wow. Now THAT's a blocker.

[Quintessence of Dust]

OOC: I find the inclusion of 'sexual offenses' as legitimate grounds for execution abhorrent. Last year, a 16 year old Iranian girl, allegedly mentally ill, and denied a fair trial, was publicly hanged for 'acts incompatible with chastity'. That is not a 'nice compromise'.

[Guest]

Quote: OOC: I find the inclusion of 'sexual offenses' as legitimate grounds for execution abhorrent. Last year, a 16 year old Iranian girl, allegedly mentally ill, and denied a fair trial, was publicly hanged for 'acts incompatible with chastity'. That is not a 'nice compromise'.[/quote]
Umm:

Quote: STRICTLY FORBIDS the use of capital punishment on people whose crime is disbelief of the nation's religion.[/quote]
And why shouldn't nations be able to execute rapists and child molesters?

Not that I support this draft or anything.

[Embolalia]

Quintessence of DustDec 3 2006, 02:09 PM OOC: I find the inclusion of 'sexual offenses' as legitimate grounds for execution abhorrent. Last year, a 16 year old Iranian girl, allegedly mentally ill, and denied a fair trial, was publicly hanged for 'acts incompatible with chastity'. That is not a 'nice compromise'. [/quote]
And every year thousands of people accused of multiple vicious rapes walk the street. Also, currently a nation can sentence a cat owner to death if it pleases.

But anyway, that part could be written in somehow. Really this discussion is void until Fair Sentencing act gets repealed.

And to guest, your quotes seemed out of alignment. Were you saying Umm at the no execution for religion clause?
That was actually one of the biggest points of the resolution: stopiing state-sanctioned murder due to a person's religion

[Domnonia]

Okay.

Well, real world sexual offender recidivism rates are nowhere near the recidivism rates of property or physical offender rates. I don't like seeing that this proposal wolud have sexual offenders thrown into the pit.

Personally, the Domini government, and myself, are against the death penalty in all forms.

[Embolalia]

Quote: Well, real world sexual offender recidivism rates are nowhere near the recidivism rates of property or physical offender rates. I don't like seeing that this proposal wolud have sexual offenders thrown into the pit. [/quote]

But pedophiles and rapists have incredibly high recidivism rates. Perhaps not as high, but pretty darn high.

And it isn't that it's throwing them into the pit, it's that they are being allowed to be thrown into the pit.

And that isn't even the important part. The important part is that it reserves the death penalty for only the most severe of crimes. If you would like, I could say that only multiple time offenders of those crimes could be killed.

[boricuastan]

KedalfaxDec 3 2006, 12:13 PMAnd to guest, your quotes seemed out of alignment. Were you saying Umm at the no execution for religion clause?
That was actually one of the biggest points of the resolution: stopiing state-sanctioned murder due to a person's religion[/quote]
Sorry; I was logged out for some reason. I was merely pointing out to QofD that his cited "acts incompatible with chastity" would fall under the "STRICTLY FORBIDS" clause (wouldn't it?), and thus, people could not be executed on that basis.

[Quintessence of Dust]

But her crime wasn't disbelief: it was illicit sexual activity. That could still fall under the bracket of sexual offences. I had read the article you referred to as applying to freedom of conscience, rather than specific activities; though I concede that she was sentenced under Sharia law.

I suppose some clarification of what 'sexual offenses' includes would be helpful.

[Embolalia]

How about this:
Quote: Limitations on Capital Punishment

RECOGNISING that many nations see benefit in the use of capital punishment.

REGRETTING that, in many nations, capital punishment is overused.

DEFINES capital punishment, for the purpose of this resolution, as the removal of a person's life as punishment for a crime.

MANDATES that capital punishment may only be used in crimes of:
i)Murder
ii)Sexual offenses
iii)Treason or espionage

DEFINES the above offenses for the purpose of this resolution:
i)murder as the killing of another human being;
ii)Sexual offenses as being engagement in sexual activities without the consent of all parties directly involved in the act.
Iii)Treason and espionage as the intentional release of confidential government information to the government of another nation.

STRICTLY FORBIDS the use of capital punishment on people whose crime is disbelief of the nation's religion.

ALLOWS nations not to use capital punishment at all.

ALLOWS for future resolutions to forbid or further restrict capital punishment, without doing so in this resolution.[/quote]

Now all of the crimes are clarified.

[Saidercray]

Murder needs another definition. The topical one includes for example euthanasia and killing someone accidentally or out of self-defence.

My idea for a definition of murder:

Murder as the intended killing of one or more other human beings against their will and motivated by the murderer's bloodthirstiness, greed, envy, vindictiveness, urge for sexual satisfaction and / or by the victim's race, culture, origin, religious or other belief, sex or sexual orientation, state of physical or mental health

[boricuastan]

KedalfaxDec 4 2006, 03:20 PM Now all of the crimes are clarified. [/quote]
Except treason also includes actively plotting or taking up arms against one's nation, and espionage includes spying on one's nation ...

[Stolidia]

The accepted term for the killing of another is homicide. Murder has a much narrower definition.

"The intentional release of confidential government information to the government of another nation" may or may not be treason or espionage. It could well be an authorized release. Even if unauthorized, it might not rise to the level of a treasonous act or be part of an espionage operation. And treason, as Kenny pointed out, has a much broader meaning than just unauthorized disclosure of classified information.

[Bears Armed]

Can we add Piracy to the list of potentially capital crimes?
Aren't there already several resolutions in force that prohibit religious persecution and thus make the 'STRICTLY FORBIDS' clause unneccesary?