Are you against death penalty? Why?

Question

Hi there! I am doing a research on death penalty and would like to know what you folks out there think about the issue. I am mostly looking for people who are against death penalty. Tell me, why do you think it's wrong? Or whatever other ideas/opinions on this you have?
thank you

Answer 1

A couple of months ago, a teacher posted on the French Y! Q/A site the following: "Qui, au 19° siècle, avait proposé d'abolir la peine de mort, et, à la place, de crever les yeux du condamné ?" (Who, in the 19th Century, proposed abolishing the death penalty and, in its place, plucking out the eyes of the codemned?")

When nobody replied he added his answer "Jules Ferry". Ferry had been French minister of education, and instituted free secular schooling for everybody. I've been unable to confirm that he actually made the proposal attributed to him, and the Questioner later removed the question: still, some people might think it worthy of consideration.

Answer 2

I am against the death penalty. I feel that this form of corporal punishment is not a deterrent of crime, nor is it morally right. Killing someone to avenge another death doesn't bring the dead person back. It doesn't change the past. I don't make exceptions for the death penalty. It's hard for me to say this, but even if the person on death row committed the most heinous of acts, my stance still would not falter. In simplest of terms, two wrongs do not make a right.

Lastly, when a law such as the death penalty exists, a slippery slope begins to form. Who decides what merits death? What bar is set for killing offenses? I think it becomes a dangerous path to walk when the lines become blurred. Also, there is the chance that the person could be completely innocent. It wouldn't be the first time an innocent was killed.

Answer 3

Yes, I am against the Death Penalty because as we all know all to well from the O.J. trial our justice system is FAR from perfect which means some innocent people who receive the death penalty will be falsely killed by the state. Plus lawyers don't care much about the truth or justice the most important thing to them is winning their case and if they lose they're not the ones that have to get the lethal injection.

If you were a convicted murderer which would be more painful?: being locked in a tiny cage the rest of your life in a hell on earth or be given a quick, painless end to your life and no prison? I personally would rather be dead than in prison the rest of my life. (don't forget that terrorists want to get executed so they can spend eternity in a paradise, is that what we want to give them?).

Would Jesus approve of the death penality? He didn't do anything to the Roman soldiers who beat him to death.

Answer 4

First of all: Great question and great answers!

I am against the death penalty primarily because innocent people are killed in the process (Wikipedia says that 122 people have been released from Death Row as innocent). Spending the rest of your life in prison is a pretty harsh penalty. I don't really see that as much of a life, but at least you can do something, if you find out that the person was really innocent.

Answer 5

It depends. Will there be more murder in this world with or without a penalty. I don't know until my question is answered. The reason is that the death penalty is just as bad as life in prison. I believe in justice and that murder should have the worst penalty. The question is whats worst, life in prison or rest in peace?

Some people say they should leave it up to God but if you think about it, everyone has a different perception of God. Most of the US are christians. What if for example all christians say you should jump off a bridge. Should everyone in the country have to live by that rule?

Answer 6

I have several reasons why I am against the death penalty.

1. It's against the teachings of Christ, and I'm a Christian, not a hypocrate like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

2. Far too many people have been put to death who were actually innocent of the crime they were punished for.

3. I don't believe that the State or Federal Governments have the right to play God.

4. I believe that the death penalty is cruel and unjust punishment.

5. For those who have committed horrendous crimes against humanity the death penalty is the easy way out. I believe that these creeps should spend their natural lives behind bars, and no easy times for them. No coddling. Make them sit there on chain gangs making little rocks out of big rock. Feed them nothing but bread and water. No possibility of parole.

Answer 7

Here's why I'm against the death penalty.

1) We don't implement it correctly. When a person is sentenced to death. They should put down the next day...and we should never look back. That destroys the sense of justice. Justice is a sense of the community and it's feeling of well being. Looking and then finding that you "got the wrong man" destroys justice. Imagine being the victim's parents and finding they got the wrong man after 10 years. The killer of their little girl got away...but if we don't look and don't know...then justice is still served.

2) A person on death row have people who take extraordinary measures to prove they are innocent. That means their case is especially scrutinized to find ways to commute the sentence or free them on technicalities. When a person is sentenced to life in prison, there is no one to take these measures, they don't care, they're not going to die. So it is assured that they WILL spend the rest of their lives in prison. In fact, "Lifers" are wishing they were on death row to have this hope, to have people looking for their freedom.

I would rather we didn't do it than to do it wrong.

Answer 8

I think death penalty is wrong because just a regular judge or jury shouldn't decide whether another actual person gets to live or not. God has to decide, no one has the power to decide whther someone should live except the Lord. And most of the time, he gives second chances. If God knew that nothing interesting and worth living for is in someones life, then he wouldn't give them a life. No one person should decide if some one else gets to die, that's also why murdering's wrong. No matter what they did they were put on this earth to have a life, so let them live.

Answer 9

From what I know,

1. Evidence shows it is not a bigger deterrent than prison.
2. We are not smart enough to avoid executing innocent people. Obviously, that can't be remedied after the fact.
3. We are not smart enough to know what happens to people who are killed. So we don't even know what we are doing when we kill them, or if it is even a punishment.
4. If killing is bad, the state shouldn't be doing it.
5. The only remaining reason for execution is to indulge primitive urges for vengeance. Given all the problems with the death penalty, that's not much of a reason, and the state shouldn't be lending its power toward encouraging irrational primitive ways of life.

Answer 10

Sorry, I favor the death penalty.

The human mind is the crown jewel of the universe -- take one except in warfare and you risk losing yours.

Human beings are capable of snuffing out the marvel of another's life for shockingly despicably tiny reasons.

However, I am AGAINST the death penalty in societies where they have professional juries (instead of ordinary citizens), anywhere there is no free press, or where the court itself is irregular, making up law to apply to a situation the court didn't have juristiction over (such as Nuremburg, where the court was created to fulfill a social function). I oppoes the death penalty in these circumstances per se, but because in a coercive environment, the defendent can surely be railroaded.

Answer 11

I am not for the death penalty. I have several reasons.
One I believe in "Thou shalt not kill."
Two I believe in what the Bible says, {"Vengeance is mine saith the Lord.}
My family would have every reason for a death penalty sentence, since my Father in law was shot while mowing his own lawn one September 2005. Died 9 days later from the wounds of it. We pray for a justice to be done in the proper manner, life would be good, however we do not know yet what the outcome will be. One must have great Faith to know God will see this matter through.