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James K O'Sullivan's avatar

"One intelligence expert worried that we will end up executing only those killers 'too stupid to realize that they ought to flunk their IQ test.'"

This reminds me of comedian Jackie Mason's admonition that if you take your legal case to trial, you're placing your fate in the hands of people who, virtually by definition, are too stupid to know how to get out of jury duty. Bitter experience has taught me that Mason was right.

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Thucydides's avatar

An adult IQ of 70 is equivalent to the average intelligence of an 11 - 12 year old, who surely knows it is wrong to kill, much less to do so in a particularly depraved and brutal manner. The Supreme Court decision constraining execution ought to be repealed.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

The quiet part is that a 70 IQ white is legitimately retarded and grew up as an FLK, while a 70 IQ black is just one SD below the mean and looks normal

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Paulus's avatar

If you're so mentally impaired that the state has put you in a group home, you're too impaired to be tried for a murder. If you're at any kind of functioning level, perhaps living with your parents but performing a menial job, you're capable of understanding that you don't commit murder.

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PE Bird's avatar

I've known people with Downs Syndrome that have a strong sense of moral capability. Someone with a 70 IQ knows what they are doing.

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Almost Missouri's avatar

Agree.

The real problem is the underlying "logic" of the SCROTUS Atkins decision:

• Could learn to be better = OK to execute

• Too stupid ever to learn morals = keep them alive and dangerous indefinitely

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PE Bird's avatar

I meant to use the word culpability.

If I were the prosecution, I would bring several low IQ (previously vetted) folks and ask them if they would hit a cat on the head with a hammer. Since they were previously vetted they would truthfully say of course not. "Why not?" "Because that would hurt them". The objective being to demonstrate that having a low IQ does not imply a low moral sense.

I would also ask the defense IQ witness if any high IQ people have ever committed murder (always ask those questions for which you know the answer).

In closing statements would say something like: "We all have to die some day. If you commit a crime and the state must put you to death, at least that is an honorable death. But if the state fails to execute you and instead you must live your remaining years as a ward, that is a dishonorable life".

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barnabus's avatar
1dEdited

The last part - no. Immediately after giving the 10 Commandments, Scripture discusses the cases of not fully intentional unjustified homicide. These perps - instead of being executed had to flee to a sanctuary city. Where they stayed for as long as the acting high priest had his term (up to 20 years). That was basically an open-air prison. Being there wasn't more dishonorable than being executed. Of course, if one left the city, one was dispatched by the blood-redeemer.

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kaganovitch's avatar

"Where they stayed for as long as the acting chief priest had his term (up to 20 years). "

The Chief Priest is not term limited.

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barnabus's avatar
1dEdited

He is. Active priesthood started at 30 and ended at 50. So at most 20 years. But it was unlikely that he would be called up to high priesthood immediately when eligible. Plus, he could die before aging out. Lots of high priests did something wrong when they officiated at day of atonement service - the principal high priest duty. So if they survived they threw an extra party.

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Stefan Grossman's avatar

Yes--as you point out, it doesn't seem logical to connect intelligence (what the IQ test reveals) and morality (knowing right from wrong).

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barnabus's avatar

Down people are pro-social and many are highly conscientious.

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The Anti-Gnostic's avatar

"One intelligence expert worried that we will end up executing only those killers 'too stupid to realize that they ought to flunk their IQ test.'"

This odd moral inversion shows up in plea bargaining, where you end up with a heftier sentence for insisting on your purported rights to the presumption of innocence and trial by jury.

There's actually a federal statute that prohibits the DOJ from offering benefits for favorable testimony, but apparently all sorts of goodies were doled out to truly vile men so HW Bush could get Manuel Noriega in prison for possession of masa flour.

In the judicial malpractice arising from the Pike County massacre, Jake Wagner who killed five of the eight victims (his father killed the other three) could end up a free man after thirty two years while his brother got life without possibility of parole even though he didn't do any actual killing, and went to trial because the prosecution would not take the death penalty off the table.

I am really cynical and jaded about the State these days.

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Erik's avatar

It's long bothered me that the government can over charge you, thus forcing you to take a probabilistic view of your situation rather than a binary one and then they insist part of the plea bargain requires you to admit that you did the actual thing even if you didn't.

When prosecutors went after Trump all I could think of is how much of a pussy I would have been in the same situation. His pounding through all that and remaining defiant increased my respect for him.

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The Anti-Gnostic's avatar

The Pike County cases are remarkable for the shaft running in the other direction: against the People's interest in swift, fair, retributive justice. How often have we seen that since the kooky 1960s and 70s? We never learn, so I guess the hammer will have to come down in the other direction at some point. In a simpler time Jake and Billy Wagner would already be lynched, and Judge Hein chased out of town.

The Robert Pickton case was a nightmare of liberal governance, permissive society, supine policing, and judicial proceduralism.

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Fleecer's avatar
2dEdited

Out of curiosity I just took an IQ test and scored well in a relatively short time frame. To me it measured logic and pattern recognition. Patterns were often easily noticed without undertaking any calculation. Sometimes mental calculations were necessary for me. Yet, motivation was needed to get through it. I needed to WANT to do my best. Though towards the end I just wanted to finish. The repetitiveness was getting irritating. Just don't know how it can be used to assist in determining whether someone should be executed or not. I've known a few MENSA people. All were males and seemed to want you to know they were MENSA. I wasn't impressed with the way they viewed things. But then again being too right brained I never scored that high.

Reflecting on the 50s when a major field of conventional psychology was personality theory/testing. My business has worked with the Yankelovich Monitor and SRI's VALS. Decent for marketing segmentation but that's it. 'Testing' has significant limitations. And there are SO many kinds of intelligence.

Here a good read if you'd like to delve into this a bit more.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427321.000-clever-fools-why-a-high-iq-doesnt-mean-youre-smart.html

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kaganovitch's avatar

"I've known a few MENSA people. All were males and seemed to want you to know they were MENSA."

Did they do Cross-fit as well?

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ScarletNumber's avatar

> I've known a few MENSA people. All were males and seemed to want you to know they were MENSA. I wasn't impressed with the way they viewed things

The issue with Mensa is that it self-selects for those who want to join such a club. Those with actual accomplishments are too busy to join

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Pete McCutchen's avatar

MENSA people are a self-selected group to whom scoring really high on an IQ test is very important to them. They are not particularly representative of high IQ people in general.

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Lucky Ned's avatar

Steve, my money is on Joseph Clinton Smith having a higher IQ than Ketanji Jackson.

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Stefan Grossman's avatar

😂😂😂

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cam's avatar

I decided to subscribe just so I could like your comment. I'm kind of kidding, I was thinking about it anyhow.

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Stefan Grossman's avatar

Wow--I had never heard of the Atkins decision. Thank you, Steve!

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ScarletNumber's avatar

O/T

iSteve Hall of Famer Josh Rosen has decided to go to Wharton to get his MBA after flaming out of the NFL. This past summer he interned at an unnamed boutique investment bank as an Investment Banking Summer Associate, so we'll see how that goes for him

https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-rosen-4bb617112/

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Steve Sailer's avatar

Rosen of UCLA looked too-narrow shouldered to be an NFL QB. Sam Darnold of USC looked to be about 6 inches wider, and he's still around in the NFL.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

Darnold had the misfortune of being drafted by the New York Jets but managed to resurrect his career last year with the Minnesota Vikings, who foolishly didn't re-sign him in favor of the unproven JJ McCarthy. Darnold currently has the Seattle Seahawks tied for the best record in the NFC.

As an aside, his three-year-older sister Franki played volleyball for, and is currently an assistant coach at Rhode Island

https://gorhody.com/sports/womens-volleyball/roster/coaches/franki-darnold/556

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AnotherDad's avatar

This is stupid.

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AnotherDad's avatar

Separate Nations.

Critical to maintaining civilization is being plugged into empirical reality and common sense. And this isn't hard. Normal people with common sense just "get" a whole lot of stuff despite nonsense from our kool-aid drinking elites and the "experts say" people.

Examples:

-- executing vicious murders is appropriate whether they are retards or loons seeing visions or stoned out of their minds

-- there is no reason to think different racial and ethnic groups have the same talents and are going to show up in various jobs in like proportions

-- generous welfare for laying about breeds more welfare

-- people on welfare should not be having more kids

-- de-policing is stupid

-- soft on crime yields more crime

-- letting China make everything and printing money to pay for it is not wise

-- men and women aren't the same

-- guys with dicks are not women

and--most importantly--

-- you preserve your nation for *your* children, you don't give it away to foreign invaders

Again--common sense. Common sense that a lot of people have.

But sadly the West is full of a lot kool-aid drinkers, slurping up the "experts say" b.s.

Those of us who want to preserve our nations--hand them over to our children--need to find a way to separate ourselves from the common sense averse, so we actually have a functioning nation to pass on.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

O/T

iSteve Hall of Famer Jason Collins is diagnosed with Stage 4 glioblastoma. It was 12½ years ago when he became the first active male athlete from the four major North American sports to publicly identify as gay. Collins dated his Stanford classmate Carolyn Moos for eight years and were engaged until he broke it off. Jason's twin brother Jarron also played in the NBA and both brothers are alumni of Harvard-Westlake School

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Steve Sailer's avatar

Brain cancer ... that's sad.

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Craig in Maine's avatar

Isn’t this another instance of the justices gathering their combined wisdom and attempting to do the job of the legislature by writing a law?

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Brian McCormick's avatar

If you murder someone it shouldn't matter that you are an idiot. They're a threat to society and shouldn't get out of prison so why should we keep them around? They won't be missed.

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Brian D'Amato's avatar

The reason the death penalty must be abolished has nothing to do with whether the perpetrator deserves it, whether it renders justice to the victims, whether there are mistaken convictions, or any other reason. It's because it's not safe to have the government get into that business, any more than now-prohibited torture or maiming sentences. It's the DEFINITION of a slippery slope.

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Brian D'Amato's avatar

At the Nuremberg trials, Albert Speer tested lower than several other Nazi leaders, including Karl Donitz and Herman Goring. I believe he lowered his score on purpose.

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