death penalty in star trek

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by Faria, May 26, 2013.

  1. Faria

    Faria Lieutenant Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2012
    Location:
    Padova
    I don't remember, is death penalty mentioned in some episodes?

    Do federation adopt it?
     
  2. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2001
    Location:
    The Wormhole
    In the 23rd century, violating General Order 7 is the only crime punishable by death in the Federation. Stated so in The Menagerie.
     
  3. Faria

    Faria Lieutenant Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2012
    Location:
    Padova
    what a sin

    ps. General Order 7 is those about Talos, isn't it?
     
  4. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2001
    Location:
    The Wormhole
    Indeed, General Order 7 forbids travel to Talos IV.
     
  5. Lt. Cheka Wey

    Lt. Cheka Wey Commander

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2013
    I would imagine some thrillseekers tempted fate just for the heck of it.
     
  6. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 2, 2009
    100 years later, Picard states that Capital punishment is no longer considered a justifiable deterrent.
     
  7. Portal

    Portal Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    May 10, 2013
    They were going to euthanize Wesley Crusher for falling into that patch of flowers.
     
  8. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2013
    "The guilty party has his choice. Death by electrocution, death by gas, death by phaser, death by hanging..."
     
  9. sbk1234

    sbk1234 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 24, 2006
    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Although it was stated by a crazy person, Janice Lester (looking like Kirk) in Turnabout Intruder sentenced Scotty and McCoy (I think) to death. Although she was nutsy-cookoo, that would seem to indicate some knowledge of capital punishment.
     
  10. Shawnster

    Shawnster Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2008
    Location:
    Clinton, OH
    Were either of these Federation members?
     
  11. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2013
    At a guess, I would say that the Denebians are Federation members, otherwise they would not care about the Vulcan patent. However, that death penalty for fraud is probably a local law, unrelated to the interstellar law of the Federation. Would the Federation extradite Mudd to Deneb 5?
     
  12. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2011
    Location:
    astral plane
    Meh. From reviewing the dialog, it sounds like Deneb V's biggest concern was simply that they didn't have the exclusivity that Mudd led them to believe they would have. That lack of exclusivity would matter if they had intended to leverage it by doing business in Federation space. There's no evidence that they were acting on behalf of Vulcan. Besides, even if they were, it could simply be because of treaty.

    No need at all for Deneb V to be in the Federation from that.

    From http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/41.htm:

     
  13. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 10, 2012
    Location:
    USS Berlin
    From "Turnabout Intruder"

    KIRK: Enough to convict you of conspiracy with mutineers. And you're so charged. The sentence, death. Mister Lemli.
    CHEKOV: Starfleet expressly forbids the death penalty.
    KIRK: All my senior officers turning against me?
    SULU: The death penalty is forbidden. There's only one exception.
    CHEKOV: General Order Four. It has not been violated by any officer on the Enterprise.
    KIRK: I am responsible. The execution will be immediate. Go to your posts. Go to your posts.

    This is an interesting riddle:

    Has General Order 7 been abolished? Since Spock did violate General Order 7 in "The Menagerie" it appears Chekov did not confuse the two.

    I may have made in error in judgement when I signed General Order 7 thirteen years prior to events of Stardate 3012.4 and following these events General Order 7 was abolished, if I recall correctly. ;)

    Bob
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2013
  14. Tiberius

    Tiberius Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2005
    Death by old age for me, please!
     
  15. T'Girl

    T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2009
    Location:
    T'Girl
    In the episode The Conscience Of The King, the governor of a colony world imposed the death penalty on half the population. It sounds on the surface like it was a Earth colony.

    MENDEZ: And to do so is the only death penalty left on our books. Only Fleet Command knows why.

    That to me sound like it's the only death penalty on Starfleet book's from the way Mendez says it. The Federation might have no civilian death penalty, or that could be the penalty for a number of civilian crimes. Also the various Federation Members could have the death penalty within their own legal codes.

    We have the death penalty here in Washington State, but we only use it about once a decade.

    :)
     
  16. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2003
    A General Order is an odd place to have such a specific death penalty in. If they use up the low number GO7 for the extremely specific case of Talos IV, how petty does GO16 get? "A Starfleet Officer shall not address Mr. Scott as 'Scotty' unless close familiarity spans 12 months or longer"?

    It sounds more as if every GO carries the potential of death penalty in the "consequences for failure to observe" section, and GO7 is a general (!) order about planetary quarantine, with the specific case of Talos IV being the only one where the death penalty clause is active at the time of "The Menagerie". GO4 then probably concerns something equally general, such as rules of engagement, and some unseen adventure by some unseen captain and ship has resulted in that order's special death penalty clause having been activated for some specific offense after the GO7 thing got completely outdated by the events. Probably happens every six months or so in Starfleet anyway.

    Of interest here is that our heroic officers have broad powers of use of lethal force, in all the eras and spinoff shows. They also appear to be the de facto law enforcers of the Federation, facing no competition from any civilian organization. Basically, then, death penalty can befall any perpetrator if the officer on the field deems this appropriate. This in no way contradicts Picard's statement that death penalty has ceased to be viewed as being a effective deterrent - it's merely a convenient way to stop the perpetration and especially perpetuation of a crime for good.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  17. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Sep 10, 2012
    Location:
    USS Berlin
    :lol: That's a good one. I had similar thoughts today.

    But "Turnabout Intruder" is specific that for TOS General Order 4 carries a death sentence.

    I imagine it has to do something with high treason, like turning a starship over to the Romulans or Klingons.

    Considering Captain Ron Tracey's greed for profit in "The Omega Glory" I'd say General Order 4 might have been a good deterrent to prevent him from just doing such a thing.

    Bob
     
  18. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2011
    Location:
    The Black Country, England
    Which was, in the 60's probably meant to show how far we had come by banning execution for most crimes.

    Unfortunately, in this day and age looks rather it looks bizarre that there would be the death penalty for ANY crime in the 23rd century...
     
  19. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2003
    Wouldn't something like that have carried the death penalty all along, though? Yet back in "The Menagerie", GO 4 carried no death penalty. So it's probably something less universal that GO 4 regulates, something that only becomes an issue in special circumstances such as those Pike got tangled in.

    Tracey was greedy? His defense of the last Kohm community wasn't motivated by greed, but by simple survival issues - self- and altruist. That this created a situation where Kirk was forced to arrest him then drove him deeper into a corner; using longevity as a bargaining chip was probably just another survival strategy...

    How so? An ever-larger percentage of humanity is supporting it nowadays... And in absolute terms, it has more supporters than at any other point in history.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  20. CorporalCaptain

    CorporalCaptain Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 12, 2011
    Location:
    astral plane
    I took the line stating that "Only Fleet Command knows why" there's a death penalty for visiting Talos IV to mean that there was something else that happened that we aren't made aware of.

    Perhaps the Talosians made another, more serious attempt to capture humans, which Starfleet judged to be a clear and present danger to the Federation.

    Their power was staggering. They could reach out to a starbase light-years away and project a perfect illusion there.