Growing up in the U.K. which abolished the death penalty in the 60’s, & watching this with friends & family, we never once contemplated that our on screen villains, some of them rather endearing would be facing death by the electric chair, we always presumed prison.
Of course, some may have been tried for manslaughter, rather than murder.
To think Abigail Mitchell (Ruth Gordon) could have very well faced the chair, is quite shocking when you think about it. *
Just proves that capital punishment is no deterrent.
shareMaybe that's true, but there are two sides to the coin...
...the death penalty is the maximum sentence & punishment given for a crime, which is what the relatives of the deceased would demand, so even though it may not deter the killer, it's no reason to abolish the punishment. *
How does this prove " that capital punishment is no deterrent."?
The people that committed these crimes were confident they would get away with it. With this in mind, why would Capital punishment be a deterrent? It is only a deterrent IF you think you may get caught. If you think you may get caught THEN you worry about the punishment of being put to death.
On that line of thinking, if there is one person, JUST ONE, has considered killing another person, who upon thinking about the punishment of being put to death decided AGAINST killing someone, then that is proof that Capital Punishment IS a deterrent.
if theres anyone who it hasnt even crossed theor mind they may get caught , they'll probly get caugfht
share You may not be aware of it, but the Supreme Court stopped the death penalty in the US from 1972-1976, ruling it cruel and unusual punishment. So that was during most of the original Columbo episodes. In any case even with an existing death penalty none of the episodes featured killers who qualified. They were all rich celebrities who killed for various reasons, and all thought they covered up their killings perfectly, but they always gave themselves away. Because they willingly talked to the cops. You should never talk to the cops, but that what this whole show was about; the killers talking to Columbo. Which is the problem with most police shows: Law and Order comes to mind. The suspect think nothing of talking to cops, when it could only hurt them. All they need to do is say I'd like to remain silent an consult and attorney, then Boom, they've protected themselves. Actually in the pilot a suspect asks for an attorney and Columbo gets mad at that, "he's the suspect, but YOU want an attorney!" This was before his character became more low key.
But for instance Charles Manson et al. were initially on death row, but then automatically switched to life after the '72 ruling. But the penalty phase never came up at all in any Columbo episodes anyway, so it's a moot point. Now on the original Law and Order there were a number of death penalty cases, even though in real life none were ever carried out in New York.
And if anyone's interested I oppose the death penalty in general, because it doesn't make sense to kill people to show that killing people is wrong. However some exceptions like McVeigh, Bundy, etc. I'm okay with.
The killers don't clam up and "ask for a lawyer" for two reasons:
1) It makes them look guilty.
2) Columbo seems harmless, and as perfectly stated in Prescription Murder, he puts on a naïve, bumbling-idiot front so as to fool his suspects into confiding in him.
Colombo set in Los Angeles CA.
Columbo TV Series 1971–2003
According to the Wikipedia article below, there were 13 executions in the time frame of the Colombo TV show/movies. Since he was a homicide detective in the biggest and baddest city in the state some of those executions would have probably been his perpetrators. So your comment is valid. :)
I know it's a TV show. It is interesting!!! LOL.
Quote from Capital punishment in California Wikipedia article below.
The state carried out 709 executions from 1778 until 1972 when the California Supreme Court struck down California's capital punishment statute in the case People v. Anderson.[4][5] California voters reinstated the death penalty a few months later, with Proposition 17 legalizing the death penalty in the state constitution and ending the Anderson ruling. Since that ruling, there have been just 13 executions, yet hundreds of inmates have been sentenced. The last execution that took place in California was in 2006. Two individuals condemned in California have also been executed in Missouri and Virginia.[6]
Read the entire article here,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_California
Thanks for the info TimMC, interesting & much appreciated :) *
shareVery welcome.
Fascinating subject.
Its interesting that Columbo never really considered the death penalty as part of the endgame to episodes.
Whereas other detective shows might end with the cop telling the killer "You're gonna get the electric chair" or "You're gonna FRY," Columbo was too polite to even suggest such things.
Truth be told, the cruelty and premeditation of most of the Columbo killers WOULD set them up for death penalty prosecution. Rarely was a Columbo killer's killing "accidental" (Robert Culp killing Pat Crowley in that one about the investigation agency.)
Of course, being set in California, Columbo killers weren't going to get put to death even IF they got the death penalty through most of the 70's.
And their wealth and power might lead to any number of "life" sentences and possibly even parole eventually. California.
I did not check to see if anyone of the 13 mentioned above were actually put to death in the 70s. hmmm.
Colombo, despite his appearance, had more class than his rich perpetrators. Just an observation.
Well Columbo did kinda' refer to the death penalty in the endgame of 'An Exercise in Fatality' when he says these foreboding words to Milo Janus..."and it's your perfect alibi that's gonna hang ya."
So in a way, he did address the death penalty, though perhaps not directly.
I think that's the only time, but I could be mistaken. *
That's a figure of speech and not a reference to the death penalty. He was in essence saying: "and it's your perfect alibi that's gonna be your undoing."
shareIt's funny how a no-life existence inside a tiny, horrible room in unsanitary and violent, dangerous conditions that may end up with the victim losing vital body parts, becoming paralyzed or ending up in a coma is called LIFE..
..and terminating the physical incarnation, which leads to a REAL LIFE on the other side, is called 'DEATH'.
I would rather switch those labels around for honesty's and accuracy's sake.
To think Abigail Mitchell (Ruth Gordon) could have very well faced the chair, is quite shocking when you think about it.
Haha, I see someone got it, bad I know :o) *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObpcGNCU944
She locked someone in a safe to suffocate. A slow death.
Why not the death penalty.
I see your point nyctc7, at the end of the day, Abigail Mitchell was a murderer.
I would never condone murder, but out of all the perpetrators, she was perhaps the one I had most 'sympathy' for.
You see, she never killed out of spite, or greed or power, but for the heartbreaking loss of her niece, who it's presumed from the tone of the episode, was indeed murdered by her husband, but of course we never truly get to know.
Still, Abigail Mitchell did murder a man, & if justice was to be served during that time, she rightly would have faced the electric chair. *
The whole 'death penalty' thing doesn't make sense at all. This planet's rules are always changed when it comes to someone else doing it.
Murder is unlawful.
However, if you dress in camouflage suit and have produced some kind of graph on a paper via ink-spurting tube with a pointy end, it's suddenly not unlawful?
However, if someone has already murdered, it's ok for the government to practice this unlawful crime? WHAT?
I mean, even if we remove all ethical and moral concerns and value of human life from all of this, and consider it purely logically, it still makes no sense.
The murder-logic with death sentence goes like this:
- Anyone that murders someone, shall be murdered
I don't consider it 'cruel' or even historically 'unusual' punishment (ever heard of French Revolution and the Guillotine?) - if it's done humanely and quickly, it's actually _MUCH_ better than spending hours, weeks, months, years or decades in prison (a horrible place to spend even one minute). I'd rather take death-by-quillotine than even a single month in (especially american) prison, thankyouverymuch.
However, the one that pulls that switch/lever that electrocutes or injects poison or releases the blade, is now a murderer. Anyone that murders someone, shall be murdererd.
Now this murderer will ALSO be murdered. The one performing this punishment is now a murderer, too! Therefore, they shall be murdered, and and and..
See the flaw in the logic about 'death penalty'? Completely illogical and nonsensical thing, although NOT particularly cruel (read about Vlad the Impaler to know what 'cruel' is) or unusual (throughout history, people have been murdered by the millions), and not really even punishment, as it's basically the greatest FREEDOM you can give someone - freedom from this stupid world and their heavy physical body.
If people KNEW how free life is in the astral world, they would never let criminals off so easily, murdering their body frees them to a much better life.