R&S. What is your view of the death penalty?

Question

Here's my opinion..

First of all let me say this.. I believe the death penalty is ALWAYS wrong.. The main reason I think it's wrong is because so many innocent people die.. Mistakes happen, and you can't bring back a dead person like you can release an innocent one..

You'll find that in 99 out of a 100 cases, the killer thinks they're in the right.. They believe that they have the right to take a life.. They're wrong.. If we kill the murderer, then we think the exact same thing.. We think we have the right to take a life. Yes maybe we've more reason.. But is there ever enough reason to commit murder?

They're two main arguments for the death penalty

1. The murderer can never kill again.. This is easy solved, just lock them up and throw the key away..

2. It helps the dead persons loved ones.. But what's the good in that? You can't bring them back, they're dead!.. So basically it's all about revenge.. And trust me revenge is a soul (sorry atheists) destroyer..

By showing mercy you've already won the battle.. Not the battle against one individual killer.. But the battle against evil itself..

So.. Do you agree with me?

Just for the record... I'm agnostic.

Answer 1

For the worst crimes, life without parole is better, for many reasons. I’m against the death penalty because it doesn’t reduce crime, prolongs the anguish of families of murder victims, costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, worst of all, risks executions of innocent people.



The worst thing about it. Errors:

The system can make tragic mistakes. As of now, 143 wrongly convicted people on death row have been exonerated. We’ll never know for sure how many people have been executed for crimes they didn’t commit. DNA is rarely available in homicides, often irrelevant and can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.



Keeping killers off the streets for good:

Life without parole, on the books in most states, also prevents reoffending. It means what it says, and spending the rest of your life locked up, knowing you’ll never be free, is no picnic. Two big advantages:

-an innocent person serving life can be released from prison

-life without parole costs less than the death penalty



Costs, a big surprise to many people:

Study after study has found that the death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison. The process is much more complex than for any other kind of criminal case. The largest costs come at the pre-trial and trial stages. These apply whether or not the defendant is convicted, let alone sentenced to death.



Crime reduction (deterrence):

Homicide rates for states that use the death penalty are consistently higher than for those that don’t. The most recent FBI data confirms this. For people without a conscience, fear of being caught is the best deterrent. The death penalty is no more effective in deterring others than life sentences.



Who gets it:

The death penalty magnifies social and economic inequalities. It isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. Practically everyone sentenced to death had to rely on an overworked public defender.



Victims:

Like no other punishment, it subjects families of murder victims to a process which makes healing even harder. Even families who have supported it in principle have testified to the protracted and unavoidable damage that the death penalty process does to families like theirs and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.



The death penalty comes down to retribution or revenge—the only plausible reasons to support it.

Answer 2

I think it is better to lock them up. The reason is because if there is reincarnation, you kill them, they could be born again within a year, and grow up and kill more people. At least if their locked up were safe for a while.

Have you never been in a situation where you wished a despicable person dead, just so they could never to to anyone else what they do to you? It does not mean I act on that, but I can understand sometimes why some murderers might think they are doing the world a favor.

Answer 3

I disagree with the death penalty.



Points against it:

1) if the judiscial system messes up and condemns an innocent person, you're killing an innocent person. this risk is never acceptable but is kind of a moot point anyway.

2) the least effective punishment possible would be killing someone. they can't learn from it and it certainly doesn't deter others. revenge is not a valid justification. if a person can be rehabilitated then they should be. if the situation that lead to such a crime can be made better then shouldn't it?



With the current state of prisons, I also disagree with life imprisonment.

Answer 4

I think that the death penalty can seem attractive when confronting a ruthless killer whose guilt you're really sure of but it's hard to undo when someone's exonerated by new evidence post-conviction, as always happens in a certain percentage of cases.



A person can be released from life in prison but he cannot be brought back to life. I think our Western system of justice is rightly geared to rather let ten guilty people go free than convict one innocent person and that's why the reason why we shouldn't have the death penalty is the same reason why we presume a person innocent until proven guilty. We'd catch a lot more people if we presumed people guilty until proven innocent but we'd also catch more innocent people.

Answer 5

It will never be ended problem as long as this world is full of mankind.

So leave it aside and help to stop the the crime rates that lead to killing each other.

Can you beg some one not to kill some one, if you can, then there would be no killing what so ever and no need to talk about death penalty .The criminal knew that he is going to be killed if he killed some one, but still he wants to kill ,so please do stop him then if you can.

Only saying you like this and that ,will take you nowhere and also being boring.

Get to work then my friend,because action speak louder than words.

Answer 6

People die undeserved everyday, it makes little difference when a few innocent people die. Innocent people die every single day in 3rd world countries by people who get away with it through bad government n police forces then go on to do it again. I think us modern humans need to stop looking at ourselfs like we ALL deserve a long and happy life because thats never going to happen no human is perfect we are all capable of bad things and dieing when you didnt deserve it is just another harsh reality of life like crossing the road n being hit by a car or a sign falling on you n killing you. As for the satisfaction of knowing your relatives murderer is being put down would give me more satisfaction then knowing they are alive n being fed looked after.

Answer 7

Agreed.

Both Torture and the Death Penalty are never an atonement, but simply the most primitive and felonious kind of revenge being only for the satisfaction of irresponsible and irrational human beings, whose intelligence quotient and humaneness lies far below that of the delinquent being tortured or sent from life to death for his/her alleged heinous action.

Recently I signed a petition to the United Nations

"Worldwide Outlawing and Abrogation of the Torture and the Death Penalty"

at Change.org.

If you agree that this inhumanity must be stopped then will you please sign it too?

http://www.change.org/petitions/worldwide-outlawing-and-abrogation-of-the-torture-and-the-death-penalty-weltweite-ächtung-und-aufhebung-der-folter-und-todesstrafe?share_id=HcFRtbzbvF&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Answer 8

I believe in the death penalty in principle.



However there's not a government on the planet who I trust to apply it justly.

Answer 9

I believe the death penalty is appropriate if someone willfully takes the life of another.

Answer 10

Appropriate.

Answer 11

Deserved but unwarranted - LIFE in prison!

Answer 12

Reconsider.



The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents

Dudley Sharp



The death penalty has a foundation in justice and it spares more innocent lives.



The majority populations of all countries, likely, support the death penalty for some crimes (1).



Why? Justice.



Anti death penalty arguments are either false or the pro death penalty arguments are stronger. Evidence follows:



The Death Penalty: Fair & Just

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/12/is-death-peanalty-fairjust.html



Few Conservatives Embrace Anti Death Penalty Deceptions

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/few-conservatives-embrace-anti-death.html



1994-2013: The Real Reasons Death Penalties & Executions Fell

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/12/why-death-penaltiesexecutions-fell.html



New Testament Death Penalty Support Overwhelming

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-testament-death-penalty-support.html





THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES



The Innocent Frauds: Standard Anti Death Penalty Strategy

and

THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-innocent-frauds-standard-anti-death.html



OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY DETERS: A review of the debate

and

MURDERERS MUCH PREFER LIFE OVER EXECUTION

99.7% of murderers tell us "Give me life, not execution"

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/of-course-death-penalty-deters.html



Saving Costs with The Death Penalty

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/02/death-penalty-cost-saving-money.html





MORAL FOUNDATIONS



Immanuel Kant: "If an offender has committed murder, he must die. In this case, no possible substitute can satisfy justice. For there is no parallel between death and even the most miserable life, so that there is no equality of crime and retribution unless the perpetrator is judicially put to death.". "A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else's life is simply immoral."



Pope Pius XII; "When it is a question of the execution of a man condemned to death it is then reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned of the benefit of life, in expiation of his fault, when already, by his fault, he has dispossessed himself of the right to live." 9/14/52.



John Murray: "Nothing shows the moral bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity of human life." "... it is this same atrophy of moral fiber that appears in the plea for the abolition of the death penalty." "It is the sanctity of life that validates the death penalty for the crime of murder. It is the sense of this sanctity that constrains the demand for the infliction of this penalty. The deeper our regard for life the firmer will be our hold upon the penal sanction which the violation of that sanctity merit." (Page 122 of Principles of Conduct).



Plato: “Longer life is no boon to the sinner himself in such a case, and that his decease will bring a double blessing to his neighbors; it will be a lesson to them to keep themselves from wrong, and will rid society of an evil man. These are the reasons for which a legislator is bound to ordain the chastisement of death for such desperate villainies, and for them alone”





William A. Petit, Jr.: "Justice is the first virtue of social institutions," according to philosopher John Rawls. It transcends national borders, races and cultures. The death penalty is the appropriate societal response to the brutal and willful act of capital felony murder. Every murder destroys a portion of society. Those murdered can never grow and contribute to humankind; the realization of their potential will never be achieved. I support the death penalty not as a deterrent or for revenge or closure, but because it is just and because it prevents murderers from ever harming again. By intentionally, unlawfully taking the life of another, a murderer breaks a sacrosanct law of society and forfeits his own right to live. (In a home invasion, Dr. Petit was, severely injured, his wife Jennifer and their 11 year old daughter Michaela were raped and murdered. Both daughters, Michaela and Hayley were burned, alive.)



John Locke: "A criminal who, having renounced reason... hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tyger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security." And upon this is grounded the great law of Nature, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Second Treatise of Civil Government.



Saint (& Pope) Pius V: "The just use of (executions), far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this (Fifth) Commandment which prohibits murder." "The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent" (1566).



Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "In killing the criminal, we destroy not so much a citizen as an enemy. The trial and judgments are proofs that he has broken the Social Contract, and so is no longer a member of the State." (The Social Contract).



3300 additional pro death penalty quotes

http://prodpquotes.info/





1) 86% Death Penalty Support: Highest Ever - April 2013

World Support Remains High

95% of Murder Victim's Family Members Support Death Penalty

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/86-death-penalty-support-highest-ever.html



======

Victim's Voices - These are the murder victims

http://www.murdervictims.com/Voices/voices.html



Much more, upon request. [e-mail]