If Seung was still alive: death penalty or no?

If we lived in a world where Seung didn't blast his face off after the massacre was finished and lived, would you want the death penalty (capital punishment) upon him or not?

In my opinion, Seung should get it. Despite the fact his mental illness (and mental illness plays a huge role in mass shootings) was a lot less severe than, let's say Adam, he killed 32! The person who took that much innocent lives should not be spared.

What do you think?

The trial would go down much like Holmes did; Prosecution points toward evidence of premeditation and stresses the enormity of the crime while defense argues mental illness. Given that, it's a 50/50 split that would ultimately depend on the jury.

I think he'd be found guilty but mentally ill and would probably be put in some US version of Broadmoor Hospital (which is basically a maximum security mental hospital).

We would have been admitted to a high security mental ward.

He was mentally ill but he might not have been insane?

No. I personally find the death penalty to be cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional. No one, not you, not me, not even a Supreme Court judge has the right to take a life. IMHO. And I say this as someone who has lost close family and friends (yes, plural) to murder.

As to his mental state - he definitely had mental problems but criminally insane means he did not know right from wrong at the time of the murders. Does anyone have any information on what the psychiatrists and or profilers said after the fact?

The level and violence of the crime would indicate very strongly for a death penalty conviction.

probably because he locked the doors and killed people without emotion

I don’t think anybody should receive the death penalty ever under any circumstances.


An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

He would most definitely have received death. Virginia is a strong state for death IIRC and he did kill 32 people.

Imagine if he was arrested, he would be ranting and raving just like in the video he sent to NBC, during the police interview. In contrast Martin Bryant was happy, even laughing at times.

Ziamber II wrote:

Imagine if he was arrested, he would be ranting and raving just like in the video he sent to NBC, during the police interview. In contrast Martin Bryant was happy, even laughing at times.

Yeah, but they had different types of mental illness. Bryant was so stupid (not in a mean way but genueinly stupid) and was unable to understand how serious the situation was. Cho, on the other hand seemed to view everyone else as evil due to his own suffering, while Bryant wasn't really suffering at all.

Martin Bryant was a psychopath. He didn't "suffer" from mental illness.

Ivan wrote:

Martin Bryant was a psychopath. He didn't "suffer" from mental illness.

He seems more like a literal retard to me. His IQ was in the 70 range IIRC.

QuestionMark wrote:

Ivan wrote:

Martin Bryant was a psychopath. He didn't "suffer" from mental illness.

He seems more like a literal retard to me. His IQ was in the 70 range IIRC.

Some people have said his IQ was 66, but he was a suprisingley good shot none the less.

Ziamber II wrote:

Some people have said his IQ was 66, but he was a suprisingley good shot none the less.

You can be mentally challenged and still be good with a gun.

QuestionMark wrote:

Ivan wrote:

Martin Bryant was a psychopath. He didn't "suffer" from mental illness.

He seems more like a literal retard to me. His IQ was in the 70 range IIRC.

Retards can still have psychopathic tendencies, they are just low-level psychopaths. Bryant is a perfect example of a low-level psychopath.

Ziamber II wrote:

Imagine if he was arrested, he would be ranting and raving just like in the video he sent to NBC, during the police interview. In contrast Martin Bryant was happy, even laughing at times.

I can't imagine Cho saying anything honestly. Being arrested after a mass shooting doesn't magically take away social anxiety, which he has VERY severely. A lot of social anxiety comes from feelings of shame, embarrassment, guilt, and inferiority. If Cho ever went to court I can only imagine him whispering whatever he wanted to say into his lawyer's ear and keeping his head down the entire time. I'm not really sure I buy into the whole idea that Cho was psychotic either that people have put forth. I think the reason he showed no emotion was that he had become numb over the years from little to no interaction with other human beings, and as such became detached from his ability to empathize with other people so felt no emotion when he killed them.

I would give him the Death Penalty, He was suffering from horrific internal sadness and Horrific episodes of Psychosis which can be inferred from the way he talks about all that has been done to him in his manifesto. Maybe If Euthanasia Programs were more accesible to sufferers of severe mental illness combined with homicidal/suicidal ideation maybe they wouldn't take others with them.

TheyAllFloatDownHere wrote:

I would give him the Death Penalty, He was suffering from horrific internal sadness and Horrific episodes of Psychosis which can be inferred from the way he talks about all that has been done to him in his manifesto. Maybe If Euthanasia Programs were more accesible to sufferers of severe mental illness combined with homicidal/suicidal ideation maybe they wouldn't take others with them.

Killing himself wasn't the answer. He needed to be educated on how to communicate with others from an early age and that's something he didn't receive. People just put a label on him and pushed him into further isolation - when in reality Seung craved attention and admiration amongst his peers. He just didn't know how to strive to achieve such a lofty goal (for him).

Ivan wrote:

TheyAllFloatDownHere wrote:

I would give him the Death Penalty, He was suffering from horrific internal sadness and Horrific episodes of Psychosis which can be inferred from the way he talks about all that has been done to him in his manifesto. Maybe If Euthanasia Programs were more accesible to sufferers of severe mental illness combined with homicidal/suicidal ideation maybe they wouldn't take others with them.

Killing himself wasn't the answer. He needed to be educated on how to communicate with others from an early age and that's something he didn't receive. People just put a label on him and pushed him into further isolation - when in reality Seung craved attention and admiration amongst his peers. He just didn't know how to strive to achieve such a lofty goal (for him).

Yes he could of been helped,programmed and saved at a malleable young age but once someone has been pushed so far into insanity and psychosis there is not much that can be done, Just like a Black Hole and its event Horizon, oce you past that event horizon there is no escape and you descend into the abyss of suffering and madness. These killers always commit these attacks for the barebones reason that they preach that they have been abused and traumatised and simply wronged by Society and others throughout their life long subjective experiences, Many of them say that they never got true help. Nowadays if someone is suffering from a severe mental illness and are begging for help they are just dosed up on Psychosis inducing "anti psychotics" and psychotropic drugs which only makes them dependant on these drugs to feel "normal" when in fact the side effects make them worse, And do you truly think that the way these mentally ill people are counselled is effective, Councilling and therapy for the mentally ill is not personal or deep enough to have any effect, the therapists just treat them systematically like robots. The only way to prevent mental illness is reforming the way us Humans treat eachover and at a young age.

TheyAllFloatDownHere wrote:

Yes he could of been helped,programmed and saved at a malleable young age but once someone has been pushed so far into insanity and psychosis there is not much that can be done, Just like a Black Hole and its event Horizon, oce you past that event horizon there is no escape and you descend into the abyss of suffering and madness. These killers always commit these attacks for the barebones reason that they preach that they have been abused and traumatised and simply wronged by Society and others throughout their life long subjective experiences, Many of them say that they never got true help. Nowadays if someone is suffering from a severe mental illness and are begging for help they are just dosed up on Psychosis inducing "anti psychotics" and psychotropic drugs which only makes them dependant on these drugs to feel "normal" when in fact the side effects make them worse, And do you truly think that the way these mentally ill people are counselled is effective, Councilling and therapy for the mentally ill is not personal or deep enough to have any effect, the therapists just treat them systematically like robots. The only way to prevent mental illness is reforming the way us Humans treat eachover and at a young age.

Your description of the black hole and the event horizon makes sense, the is a point after witch return to normality is impossible.