If corporations are "persons".....

[Sebastian Doyle]

Then shouldn't corporations which commit murder be subject to the death penalty?*

Let's see Halliburton and Blackwater on trial right now. How about Union Carbide, for that Bhopal thing a couple decades back? Pretty much any corporation profiting from Iraq or Afghanistan. MonSatan could go on trial from anyone who became ill due to mutant corn and its poisonous liquid byproduct HFCS. This might be the best way to get rid of the worst corporations - execute the bastards!
















*DISCLAIMER: I am neither advocating nor condemning the existence of capital punishment here, so please no threadjacking to make it a debate on that issue.

[dbonds]

1. Love your avatar :)

[deminks]

3. I love the avatar too!

:thumbsup:

[Ganja Ninja]

2. And why should any of them be exempt from lawsuits for any reason?

:shrug:

[change_notfinetuning]

4. prison, at least. They should also pay taxes. In the 50;s, they paid 33% of

taxes. Today, it's around 6%. May as well get rid of all corporate income tax. If they aren't gonna pay anyway, at least we wouldn't have to hear that bullshit about how American craporations pay the highest taxes in the world. That is a farce.

[TexasObserver]

5. You're right. They NEVER face the consequences of their criminal acts.

[treestar]

13. I think they can be charged with crimes

I remember something from law school about it - organized crime could just form a corporation and get away with crimes, so it was somehow possible to charge them with one.

[TexasObserver]

25. In those cases, they charge the individuals, not the corporation.

Holding a corporate office is no shield from prosecution for one's criminal acts. The law holds such officers criminally responsible for their criminals acts, and gives them no cover by virtue of their corporate office.

[T Wolf]

6. If only our corporate execs had the same sense of honor as the Japanese and Chinese and

killed themselves when they disgraced the company.

The only hole in that plan is that American corporate types never feel shame about their actions.

[sybylla]

7. K & R. nt

[arikara]

8. Their charters need to be revoked

and they need to be completely disbanded. Instead if they get any penalty its just a small (to them) fine and considered part of the cost of doing business.

[anonymous171]

9. I love the idea.

[closeupready]

10. If the court is suggesting that there is no difference, then I can't see how one can argue not.

Either they are the same, or they are not the same. Seems to me.

[Echo In Light]

11. K&R

[G_j]

12. I'll accept life in prison nt

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. Life in prison for the executives would be fine.

But I'm talking about executing the corporate "person". ;)

[G_j]

18. disband the criminal corporation

sounds entirely reasonable

[treestar]

15. What about the small ones though, that are for a mom and pop

business? They are needed so they don't risk personal liability.

Big Business may be evil but the corporate form in neutral.

And most of them would go to Limited Liability Companies anyway.

You should talk more of a limit on how big they can get.

[anonymous171]

17. If a "mom and pop" corporation killed someone then it deserves the same punishment

[Sebastian Doyle]

20. I don't think anyone is going to confuse a mom and pop business with a huge corporation.

The independently owned convenience store two blocks down the street might charge me $3.00 for a burrito and $1.50 for a bottle of Coke, but they aren't funding mass murder in Afghanistan. I think everybody knows the difference.

[treestar]

21. If you abolish the legal personhood

then it affects the 7-11 the same way.

so many people attack the form itself, when their real problem is with big Business.

[rucky]

16. Seems fair.

so it'll never happen.

[NoNothing]

19. Interesting idea

Though as an attorney I feel I should point out that even if real individuals had been responsible for the things you mentioned at top, none of them would be capital offenses. Death penalty for people pretty much requires first-degree intentional homicide; negligent homicide or even depraved indifference is not usually enough.

[Bonhomme Richard]

22. We need to bring the draft back and then a whole corporation....

could be drafted and sent to Afghanistan.

[Touchdown]

23. Charge Exxon with partial birth abortion for killing their renewable energy projects

..also works on Microsoft and their endless promises of vaporware.

[MiniMe]

24. And why aren't they subject to the same contribution limits that we the people are?

That would be $2,400 per corporation. Although I wouldn't like it, at least that wouldn't be so bad. But I don't think there is any limits on corporate giving right now. Ugh.