Why hasn't most of Batman's Rogues Gallery been given the Electric Chair?

[Timothy Hunter]

First off, I would like to say I'm against capital punishment, and I believe that New Jersey, where Gotham is located, does not permit execution of criminals. Despite this, consideringvhe mass murdering members of Batman's rogues gallery, some having probably killed hundreds of innocents, keep on escaping from Blackgate and Arkham, you'd think most have them should have been given the electric chair treatment, or a lethal injection.

[Batknight]

My justification for it is most of Batman's rogues gallery is considered so serverly mentally ill and insane as well as well connected and wealthy, they wouldn't be up for execution.

Penguin and Ra's are too well connected and pay people off to ensure neither is ever executed
Mad Hatter and Mr. Freeze suffer from obsessive personality disorder
Two-Face and The Ventriloquist have a split personality disorders, as well as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
Ridder and Scarecrow have a compulsive and narcissistic disorders (though Scarecrow is leans more towards just being evil)
Harley Quinn has histrionic and dependency disorders
Everyone thinks Ivy is insane because she believes all plant life is self-aware and intelligent (which, of course, is actually true)
Clayface can't really be executed due to his powers
Everyone thinks Joker is also insane, but probably isn't. There's something so deeply wrong with him that we can't even comprehend what it is so we pass it off as mental illness and insanity.

Would this hold up in real life? Probably not. But that's the way I see in-universe.

[masahikotahara]

I mean no disrespect to the OP, but we're talking comics here. I think (sometimes) it is pretty useless to look at them in comparison to the real world.

Sure, some/most of them would deserve the death penalty (although I would mostly prefer life in prison), but they keep running around the city time and time again.

Why? Because we're talking comics here.

[Batknight]

I mean no disrespect to the OP, but we're talking comics here. I think (sometimes) it is pretty useless to look at them in comparison to the real world.

Sure, some/most of them would deserve the death penalty (although I would mostly prefer life in prison), but they keep running around the city time and time again.

Why? Because we're talking comics here.

I agree it pointless to try and justify things in comics in real world logic. It just doesn't work. However, I don't see anything wrong with coming up with in-universe reasons and explanations for why things are the way they are.

[masahikotahara]

Has any criminal in Gotham City ever gotten the death penalty? I'd figure the concept of the death penalty simply doesn't exist in Gotham. Not sure, though.

[Timothy Hunter]

I mean no disrespect to the OP, but we're talking comics here. I think (sometimes) it is pretty useless to look at them in comparison to the real world.

Sure, some/most of them would deserve the death penalty (although I would mostly prefer life in prison), but they keep running around the city time and time again.

Why? Because we're talking comics here.

I agree with your sentiments to a great extent. These are superhero comics we are talking about here. This is why Superman can fly and Spider gets amazing powers from a radioactive spider instead of cancer. It's comic book logic. However this issue just bugs me. I wouldn't mind this plot hole if it occured during the Julius Schwartz era of Batman. However considering how much emphasis in the Batman comics there right now on grittiness and realism, I think this subject is a problem.

[Batknight]

Has any criminal in Gotham City ever gotten the death penalty? I'd figure the concept of the death penalty simply doesn't exist in Gotham. Not sure, though.

Wasn't Mr. Freeze up for the death penalty recently in King's run?

[josai21]

We all know this is comics and that, in the real world, many of Batman's rogues would have died.

However, I don't think it is unreasonable to try to find an "in-universe explanation."

[masahikotahara]

Also, the fact that the majority of the villains goes through Arkham Asylum tells us that they are mentally deranged and therefore would not be eligible for the death penalty, right?

EDIT: Batknight already pointed this out.

[Timothy Hunter]

Has any criminal in Gotham City ever gotten the death penalty? I'd figure the concept of the death penalty simply doesn't exist in Gotham. Not sure, though.

Joker was on Death Row in the prestige one-shot, The Joker: Devil's Advocate.

[masahikotahara]

My justification for it is most of Batman's rogues gallery is considered so serverly mentally ill and insane as well as well connected and wealthy, they wouldn't be up for execution.

Penguin and Ra's are too well connected and pay people off to ensure neither is ever executed
Mad Hatter and Mr. Freeze suffer from obsessive personality disorder
Two-Face and The Ventriloquist have a split personality disorders, as well as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
Ridder and Scarecrow have a compulsive and narcissistic disorders (though Scarecrow is leans more towards just being evil)
Harley Quinn has histrionic and dependency disorders
Everyone thinks Ivy is insane because she believes all plant life is self-aware and intelligent (which, of course, is actually true)
Clayface can't really be executed due to his powers
Everyone thinks Joker is also insane, but probably isn't. There's something so deeply wrong with him that we can't even comprehend what it is so we pass it off as mental illness and insanity.

Would this hold up in real life? Probably not. But that's the way I see in-universe.

I agree. So, I would like to know if there are also examples of criminals that ever did get the death penalty in Gotham City.

[masahikotahara]

Joker was on Death Row in the prestige one-shot, The Joker: Devil's Advocate.

Right! I forgot about that one.

[Jim Kelly]

Because DC would have to be seriously idiotic to kill off so many popular characters. It drives me crazy when fans keep screaming that Batman should kill his villains or they should be sentenced to death. Is that what the readers really want or are they being purposely difficult just to raise a stink?

Maybe it's better to look the other way for the sake of keeping your favourite rogues around.

There are some villains that were killed off, especially in the early days. In fact, the Joker was supposed to have died in BATMAN No.1, but the editor rightly decided that was a bad idea. Eventually, Joker went to the electric chair and paid for his crimes, but he somehow survived the death sentence. After that he noticeably changed, as he became more of a prankster than a serial killer.

The Batman rogues seem to take a lot of their inspiration from Dick Tracy's rogues--but Chester Gould did have the habit of killing off his villains, which meant he had to keep coming up with a long list of more oddly-named adversaries.

[Ascended]

Because DC would have to be seriously idiotic to kill off so many popular characters. It drives me crazy when fans keep screaming that Batman should kill his villains or they should be sentenced to death. Is that what the readers really want or are they being purposely difficult just to raise a stink?

Maybe it's better to look the other way for the sake of keeping your favourite rogues around.

Oh, I dont think there's anyone wrong with looking at the topics. Im sure all of us here understand that there are good reasons (creative and business related) for not killing characters off (at least not for long) but that doesn't mean it can't be fun to look at these inconsistencies within the fiction and roll them around in a discussion.

I think the easiest reason for why the State doesn't just put villains on death row is because Gotham's State doesn't have the death penalty in the first place. The rare occasion where we've seen Joker or Freeze given the death penalty can be written off as a singular act of desperation signed by the governor. And you can use the example of Joker being on death row for a crime he didn't commit as a reason for why the State doesn't make the attempt more often.

And really, let's be honest here. Most people don't end up on death row. It's terribly expensive and time consuming and it happens less and less each year (at least in most States, Im sure there's exceptions. Probably Texas). We have people who we know, beyond all doubt, are terrorists responsible for horrible acts......and they don't get put on death row, they get thrown into Gitmo.

[oasis1313]

Let's try this theory: Gotham City is too dam poverty-ridden to afford that much electricity and its grid is too antiquated, rundown, and blown to run that much juice to Gotham Pen. Its inhabitants (except for Bruce Wayne and his society friends) are too dam poor to have much beyond candles. The few wires that aren't already cut are grayed and useless. The city plumbing and sewage system is shot. Drinking water for most people is on par with Calcutta a hundred years ago. Everyone in Gotham City would love to move away, but they're all working five low-paying jobs to try to make rent. If Batman wasn't protecting them, there would be millions of criminals out playing Purge Night 365 days a year. Such is the wretchedness of Gotham City.