Capital Punishment, What Do You Think?

Question

Capital Punishment speeds the Perp's Karmic evolution along a bit...BUT as a former Death Sentence PROPONENT I have come around to the informed opinion that death is too good for some individuals.

And yes there could be some things for some people worse than death...i.e,a life time of isolation or hard labor, i.e. Chain Gangs, no TV or Rec time and/or conjugal visits or In-House Weddings via CCTV or communication.

Unless you are the Dali Lama those arrangements in a windowless "Cell" incommunicado might be a tad uncomfortable ... for this "lifetime" that is.

Answer 1

I'm actually a big believer in punisment fitting the crime. However, some crimes do warrant death and should be carried out quickly and divised with the concent and participation of the victims or victims family. However, I do have an inflated view of what justice is.

Answer 2

J(1) just on a practical financial basis, life imprisonment is more cost efficient for the state that the death penalty. The reason being is that after having gone through all the appeals process wherein the state is paying for the court cost, the cost of the state's attorney as well as the defendant attorney, and other related expenses it cost more to execute someone than to house them.

(2) The criminal justice system is imperfect. Some death row inmates have been exonerated of the charges against them. You can rest assured, although I can't name a specific case, some people have been wrongly executed. It has happened and it will happen again.

(3) The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime any more so than life imprisonment. Those who are going to commit a murder, the most common capital case, are not deterred by the fact that they could be executed if caught.

Answer 3

The legal system, as we know it in the US, is far too inaccurate and inconsistent to have the death penalty in place, in my humble opinion. That is why so many people have been released since DNA testing became the norm. What new science will come about in the years to come that goes even further than DNA testing?? One can only guess. But until we have a machine invented that can be placed onto the head of the accuser and playback on a Television screen exactly what happened for everyone to see, I say abolish the death penalty.

Also, I think that most people do not have the correct understanding of how appeals work in the court system. When a case is appealed, the accused does not have a second trial so to speak. The only things that are reviewed are the legal steps of the first trial. Was everything done properly. It isn't a chance to retry the case.

Answer 4

The only problem with the death penalty is it does not answer for the victim(s) in any way. I am not religious but I do want the criminal to suffer the exact same sufferings of their victims in the exact same time chronology. I would want there to be no more than three years for the convicted to proceed through the appeals process. In some states, California for example, the death penalty means twenty years and more for the penalty to kick in and the criminal to be executed.

The way I see it, government is to slow and ineffectual or those who are supposed to be our leaders don't have the testicles to lead. Politics and public opinion be damned - follow the letter and intent of the law.

The only other thing I would want to see changed, if in the commission of a crime and the criminal is caught red handed, his victim(s) dead, victim of tourture, those who would rape, save society the time and expense of a criminal trial - execute the criminal on the spot. Total cost to society would be around .27 cents. Let's spend the money productively and let's not waste the money defending the criminal in court. It is my understanding, the average cost of a trial involving murder can cost as much as 5 million dollars today. The yearly cost of 'housing' those criminals exceeds $500,000.00 per year per prisoner. Just imagine what could be accomplished with the monies saved.

BTW: Criminals who murder are not put on chain gangs. They are isolated, and one would at least hope, in cell with nothing to do all day, all year, or for their life sentence. Sad, that is not always the case.

Answer 5

I'm very uncomfortable with it. I understand why people support it especially for people like Bundy, Ramirez and Rolling who commit horribly atrocious crimes. Here are some of the reasons I can't support it:
1) We live in a civilized society and it seems to me when we execute someone we're stooping to that person's level.
2) It's unfairly applied. Men, poor people and minorities are much more likely to receive a death sentence than wealthy, white people.
3) It doesn't seem to be a deterrent. My state doesn't have the death penalty yet we have a lower murder rate than many death penalty states.
4) Some people on death row have been found to be innocent due to advances in DNA evidence. How shameful would it be if we executed an innocent person? With a life without parole sentence, that person, if later found to be innocent, could be released and compensated. You can't bring back a dead person.

Those are my main reasons for not supporting capital punishment. I agree with you: we don't know if death is a worse punishment than life imprisonment. I think people convicted of heinous crimes should be sentenced to life without parole and not given luxuries like cable TV in prison. They can sit and rot. Also I think that if you support the death penalty you should personally be able to pull the switch or inject the poison. I couldn't. That's another reason I can't support it.

Answer 6

The death penalty violates our Constitutional rights. It violates our right to due process. If we are dead, evidence proving us innocent won't help. It is also cruel and unusual punishment. There are many horror stories of executions gone wrong. None of them are quick and painless. The death penalty is more expensive than prison, because court cases involving capital punishment last longer. Also, inmates get to appeal, delaying the process. Virginia has the shortest death row stay, and it still takes a minimum of 7yrs to kill them! The death penalty is only applied to a narrow range of crimes. Won't affect the overall crime rate, so what's the point? Maybe we should just ease restrictions on self-defense?

Answer 7

Although I would hate to be on a jury to make this sort of decision and although capital punishment seems barbaric I really don't know what the solution is> The ideal solution would be to have social reforms,bring back family values and close knit family relationships that would lessen the no of people dramatically that wind up in prison. I don't think prison should be a plae of estreme punishment, a place to exact revenge but a place to keep those who pose a threat to society so need to be kept away and separate.Neither should those imprisoned live a lavish lifestyle but because we are a civilized society should still be treated to where they retain human dignity. I would like them being trained in skills,production that would benefit society.,as the case of prisoners who work with dogs from pounds and make them adoptable. I see also no wrong in having them repair roads and so forth. esp since they do get paid for the work that they do.Instead of just languishing in jails and costing tax money for their upkeep have them be productive and save the State,Gov't labor costs. As far as accountability for their crimes committed -a final reckoning awaits them as it does everyone

Answer 8

I'm all for the death penalty. In all honesty, I don't think some states do it enough. In fact, there was a man in Oklahoma who once brutally raped and then murdered a TWO YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL!!!!! He got the death penalty but spent 10 YEARS on death row, before he actually got his sentenced carried out. That means the good people of the state of Oklahoma supported this man for ten YEARS.

I like the way Texas does it. From the time he (or she gets sentenced) it takes on average about two years. This gives them more than enough time to try and appeal it.

Answer 9

Life in prison is a worse punishment than the death penalty. With capital punishment, the inmate knows exactly when, where, and how they are going to die. A sentence of life in prison means that the defendant has no clue as to those things.

Answer 10

I tend to go back and forth.

First I agree, death is toooo simple for some of the people on death row... Then there is the whole issue of cost for them when life imprisonment is the alternative.

However, I don't like the idea of the state putting people to death.

I think you forfeit your right to your own life when you take another's. SO, I think that the whole Island idea from that Ray Liota movie is good. That way you don't have to pay for them, they can all kill eachother for all we care, and the "state" isn't the one who executes them. If they want to make a life for themselves, they can...