I just heard a story about how deathrow inmates sometimes have a flock of penpal girlfriends,some of whom want to marry their deathrow penpal.

Should this be allowed? I'll expand the question, for the benefit of those who live where there is no death penalty, should those sentenced to life in prison be allowed to marry? Should anyone in prison be allowed to marry?

One question....why? Makes no sense to me...

Life sentence here means 15 years ;P

Why should they marry? Well It's not my concern why they want to do that. I don't care and I don't have objections.

Doesn't matter I think. Let them... What could be so bad about that.
Do they get a chance for sexytime? and put a bastard child on this earth?

I see no reason why the marital plans of anyone should be the business of anyone else.

When you're in prison, all your plans are the business of someone else. That's the nature of confinement.

No matter where you are, your emotional life is always a private thing. Feelings can't be locked up, but of course marriage can be a problem if one aren't allowed to.

Tbh, I think alot of the people who marry people sentrenced to death have some strange psychological need to different and want attention (and possibly money after they "sell their stories"). As for the prisoner themselves, I think they should be allowed to marry, but this should not change the conditions of their detention at all in my opinion.

As it sits now, marriage is not limited to emotions, its a legal status involving government. The prisoner can have whatever emotions he wants, but that doesn't mean he can have access to the legal system to establish a marriage.

If things worked the way I believe they should, it might be a different story.

Why do you think they should be allowed to marry? On what principles do you base that?


And yeah, something is desperately wrong when someone on the outside wants to marry an inmate. That's going directly to the bottom of the barrel to find a mate, its just not natural.

The right to marry is part of human rights, at least in the UN Declaration of Human Rights anyway. Not sure if countries implementing the death sentence recognise that though

On a personal level though, I think everyone should have the chance to legally bond with a partner. Note a partner, polygamy isn't fair to anyone involved in my opinion ...

People who commit crimes, like stealing from others, assaulting them, or murdering them, etc, forfeit many of their rights. I am taking the position that marriage is one of those "rights" they should forfeit, and I'm still waiting for a compelling argument as to why they shouldn't.

Who are you to decide what is fair in someone else's relationship? Isn't that up to the parties involved?

Your the one asking the bloody question!

Human rights are baseline right irrespective of the persons financial, social or legal situation, your right that the people who commit serious crimes forfeit some rights given by their government but they do not lose their human rights.

It's not like they could spend time together when one of them is locked away. If they want to marry fine, why not?

Their punishment is to be behind bars, not to not be able to marry. I though you were the one talking about officials to keep out of marriage.

Im going to have to disagree with you on this one Rasczak. Those rights, when taken away, are not given back. I know a few released people who will never be allowed to vote. This is not a condition while on parole...they can Never vote again. Would you tell them that they can also never marry?
Granted, released individuals differ from the given instance of death row inmates. However, due the need for standardized punishment, the rights removed for one should apply to all. One could consider a relationship based on non-physical intimacy is the healthiest choice for some of these people. A fair amount of prisoners (even death row inmates) have sex related offenses. This could be a chance for them to learn to further improve their views on such.
Also, these inmates have various luxuries still available to them- Tv time, internet time, limited personal property. If you're to remove rights from inmates, shouldn't some of these options come first? Marriage is hard enough to come by, why should it be among the first options removed from them?