Do you think capital punishment should be allowed? Please elaborate.?

Question

Hello everyone,

Not to bore you but I'm writing several papers on the issue of capital punishment in America. I chose this topic because though I tend to think of myself anti-death penalty, I sometimes find myself questioning it. I figured by the time I'm done writing my papers I'll have a better idea of my viewpoint on this matter.

So, that being said, I was wondering what everyone else thinks about capital punishment.. Is it moral/just? Let me know what you think!

Answer 1

Very complex question

First, I will list the problematic areas

1. Is murder as a punishment considered 'cruel and unusual' when it is done in a humane way that causes no pain? This is not only a constitutional, social issue but also a moral one.

2. Why is it acceptable to murder a criminal when murder, the taking of a life, is considered a crime by society. This is a social question only.

3. If you are religious, 'thou shalt not kill' is one of the 10 commandments. This is a moral question.

Now with all that said, the question was what do I think...

My mind says:
I think that only God has the right to take a life... that is the bottom line.

My heart says:
If someone harmed someone I love, I would rip their head off with my bare hands after first torturing them.

Answer 2

A little note on the person talking about Muslim states... ummm... do you have any figures on the crime rates in nations where they cut off people's hands? and... isn't that where all the criminal terrorists come from?


As for the death penalty in the U.S., I am neither for nor against it specifically, but I will say that it seems based on studies and based on crime rates that it is NOT a real deterrent. So the deterrent argument is not a proper argument for the death penalty, and morally it is the strongest, or at least the most socially acceptable.

The true deterrent to crime is to have a competent police force. If they catch the people who commit crimes, and they are sent to prison for just terms, (raising or lowering them is usually insignificant) then people who are criminals, who know other criminals, etc., will be less likely to commit crimes because they will see their criminal friends disappear. They will be less likely to kill someone during a robbery for convenience, if it is just as likely that they will be caught, and will have to serve a much longer term.. if anything, lower terms for crimes in which nobody is hurt would offset the problem of people killing people while committing another crime.

Also, crime can be reduced through economic and educational improvements, standard of living improvements, more people earning a living wage.

Legalizing pot would help... most people who smoke it are otherwise good kids who would prefer to be doing it legally. And something as basic and innocent (in their eyes, and in many people's) being illegal makes them feel the need to reconcile their illegal conduct, and it means they have less respect for the law in general and are more likely to commit other crimes than someone who feels no need to break the law to live and feel free.

Capital punishment is something perhaps we could think about reserving for war crimes, but look at terrorism, it may not serve as a deterrent there either.

Answer 3

It should definitely be allowed.

1 - If fear for your own life won't stop someone from hurting me, what will?

2 - The death penalty does work. Why do you think no one rats out mobsters?

3 - If someone is so sick in the head that fear for their own life won't stop them, why should we allow them to be a threat to other prisoners? If the idea of prison is really rehabilitation, then why should those future good citizens be subjected to some crazy person's violence?

4 - Once you kill an innocent person (not counting self-defense and accidents), you have given up your right to keep breathing. For those that say it's not a deterrent, well it certainly will keep THAT person from killing again, won't it?

Answer 4

the significant punishment of hell is the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for people who refuse by ability of their very own loose option to have faith and be switched over from sin, even to the top of their lives. Mortal sin is the only sin which will deliver you to hell. that's a grave infraction of the regulation of God that destroys the divine life interior the soul of the sinner, constituting a turn far off from God. For a sin to be mortal, 3 circumstances ought to be latest: (a million) Grave rely. (2) finished expertise of the evil of the act. (3) finished consent of the will.

Answer 5

I think there should be no capital punishment, that is to say, no death penalty.

The death penalty is trusting the government to decide who may live and who may die, and if they are not good enough to rehabilitate people, they are not good enough to say who may live ad who may die.

They make mistakes sometimes, and innocent people are killed, and then the real criminal goes free. This has been proven.

I believe in re-incarnation. So if you kill a criminal, they come back to do it again, but this time with a new face, new fingerprints, and new DNA.

Answer 6

Absolutely. Let's say we abolish the death penalty again. Then the rednecks who dragged the black man in Texas to his death and Tim McVeigh would still be alive.

Some crimes are so heinous that those who commit them deserve to lose their lives.

Answer 7

Yes, I think there are some people that shouldn't be allowed to breath. Back in the old west, fathers would take their sons to watch the hangings, and they'd tell them, this is what happens if you steal someon'e horse.

Answer 8

I think that capital punishment should only be allowed upon voluntary admission by the criminal to the crimes.

If someone is claiming innocence, there have been too many cases where they were eventually proved correct years or decades later. Capital punishment is not a reversible sentence.

Answer 9

Death and chopping off limbs is a definite deterrent to crime. Look at the muslim states. What we have in the US which prevents the deterrent is long appeals and no action.

Granted the major difference is here in the US, you guilty till proven innocent, with the DA lying and fabricating anything to get the conviction. This is why the DP is no good here. If we could trust the gov and da, then I think Televised exicutions and de-limbing and even pulbic floggings would go a very long way to rid our society of crime as we know it. Visit any muslim country (excpet where there is war) and there is virtually no crime. Visit Singapore, virtually no crime. Why? because they kill you, they chop off your hands or they whack-a-mole your as* with a cane which hurts like all outdoors.

Answer 10

No, the death penalty is barbaric, primitive and immoral; And it is not a deterrent, it only legitimizes violence and murder and makes it appear that killing is okay at certain times. Killing/murder will never be okay or acceptable, in my view. If I ever do view killing or murder as acceptable, I will know that I've lost it.