Talk:Gary Otte

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Is this offender notable? Unless there is some great legal issue resolved or his victims are notable, or hew should be the last person executed in America, then this page should be deleted for a lack of notability.

He is a truly sad case as an individual, but he is far from the only offender with a pitiable early life.

The pretext of non-notability conceals the political belief that information about executed people should be suppressed. Let's not be fooled by pretexts any more. Let's demand that people say what they are really thinking for a change. 174.89.37.164 (talk) 21:07, 14 September 2017 (UTC)


 * He's the last person executed by the United States, for the next twelve days. Maybe longer. Though yeah, the last guy to hold this historic distinction did so for twenty days, and it didn't get him an article. Just a brief mention in rocuronium bromide and potassium acetate. InedibleHulk (talk) 02:00, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Argument in favor of retention: Deleting this article would be an impediment for those wishing to research the circumstances, methods, and demographics of persons subjected to judicial execution in the United States. This is especially important in the English language version of Wikipedia, as the United States of America is the only remaining majoritarian Anglophone country which routinely exercises capital punishment. Further, to say that other persons executed by State governments in the United States have not received an article is a facile argument: Wikipedia should be a resource for increasing knowledge, not an intentional forum to advocate for erasure of knowledge. The appropriate question to ask here is not why this person does get an article, but rather, considering the current ethical and political arguments in the United States surrounding judicial execution, why others who have been excluded have not received articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:1C2:1201:DD3F:8593:8CD9:2D24:21EC (talk) 05:15, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Argument in favor of deletion:

Lawful execution is practically a banality in America, as I said of another executed killer whose page was removed. Whether one likes the death penalty or not... is he more interesting than a perpetrator killed in the attempted commission of a crime? Is he more interesting than someone killed in an animal attack?

Serial killers (Ted Bundy) and mass killers, those who get publicity in widespread news coverage (Charles Manson), those who were notable before their crime (Phil Spector), persons convicted of genocide or war crimes (lots of Nazis), and those who become part of mass culture (the killers in In Cold Blood)? Sure, execution or not.

OK, so the death penalty is on shaky legal and even technical ground in America, and unlike the reality in such a place as China or Iran, any execution in America could be the last. But there is always the possibility that some states will revert to old methods (electrocution? hanging? shooting? cyanide-gas chamber?) or to something new, like nitrogen asphyxiation. But history shows that when a 'new' and more allegedly-humane method of executing offenders comes into existence (as with the guillotine) it gets accelerated use.

The last to die of lethal injection? Then he would be notable. The last to be executed in Ohio? Maybe. But we do not know that yet. Pbrower2a (talk) 19:31, 15 September 2017 (UTC)