do you think the death sentence is ever right?

Answer 1

No,I don't think so,not in a civilised society.

I guess you're asking this in relation to the impending trial verdict on Saddam Hussein.If he is sentenced to death,there will be just further violence,hatred and bloodshed.For serious crimes,I think a life sentence in prison is the appropriate punishment...I can't see how killing someone solves anything.

Answer 2

If the death sentence is to be used then it has to be a 100% certainty that the person is guilty and not as in the case of the US where they sit on 'death row' for 20 years+.

Having said that a guy in the UK was found guilty of rape and sentenced to imprisonment...he spent 3 years inside for the complainant to be found out to be an inveterate liar who had made similar claims against innocent men in the past!

Having read some of the replies on here about rapists being given the death sentence....how do you justify the fact that this man would have been put to death innocent!

The likes of Huntley and Sutcliffe et al fair enough...they are a financial burden etc on the state and have committed the worst atrocities...but it starts there...where does it end?

How about prolific young offenders?...why not get rid of 3 strikes and your out and change it to 3 strikes and your dead?...

Why stop at those who do the most horrific crimes and look at recidivists who continually clog our justice system?

I Know....I appear to be making light of the subject...but where does it all end?????

Answer 3

In general, no. I don't think we as a country have the right to kill others. It is not an issue of preventing them from committing further crimes, because we can sentence people to life without parole. Also, we have seen that many people sentenced to prison have later been proven to be innocent by DNA testing, and it is almost certain that innocent people have been executed in this country. If someone is erroneously jailed, you can at least partially rectify the situation by releasing him and giving him a lot of money. If someone is erroneously executed, nothing can be done to compensate that person.

Perhaps the death penalty can be reserved only for the most evil of criminals, to be used as an example for future generations. A good example of this is Israel, where the death penalty is abolished for everyone except for convicted Nazi war criminals. Same with other war criminals who have committed genocide. I'm also thinking that it might be appropriate for those convicted of treason against the United States, so that the crimes of the Bush regime are never repeated by future generations of Republicans.

Answer 4

Yes, for the murder of children e.g. Ian Huntley, and mass murder, e.g. Harold Shipman. I don't buy the argument that " to make them pay for what they did they should spend their whole life in prison" because they do not pay, the rest of us do! Prison can be quite a comfortable and sociable place once you get settled in. The big problem with the death sentence is miscarriages of justice. Several women have just had their convictions for child murder overturned. It would have been an appalling tragedy if, after losing their children, they were then wrongly executed for murder - don't you think?

Answer 5

No, because you can never be that sure of their guilt. History has shown us how wrong we have been in the past. Our legal system convicts now on the say of so called experts. What kind of justice is this? And can we ever be sure of the right conviction. In reality, the police do not have the time to do real detective work (As seen on Frost) They want convictions, and numbers they very seldom look beyond the obvious. Hanging is too final.

Answer 6

Yep! Tell me if someone hurt your child in anyway (not just sexually) would you not go hunt them down and string them up? I think, anyone who commits a crime that the death penalty would be issued to should, first be sat in a closed room with the victims family and closest friends Mother first, than father, than sister, than brother, than, well, if there was anything left then we could go on. Really what family does not deserve the right to execute their OWN penalty on the one(s) who took their loved ones away. That I think is the real problem with the system.

Answer 7

No I do not think that the death penalty should be given to any one. All come to this world with defects. If we put any one to death we have robbed him of his chance to rectify that defect. God should be allowed to play his role. Yes the cost of keeping such people in jail is another matter but every citizen can do some work in jail also and pay for his upkeep

Answer 8

It never is. It is a greater punishment to be jailed for life, and
perhaps the offender was someone else. The American way
of keeping cold cases open, has found the true offender a
long time after someone else was put in jail, and some even
dead because of capital punishment. One innocent man dead
overrules all capital punishment. It is the responsibility of the
state to keep them the accused alive.

Answer 9

Yes I do. Some people, depending on the severity of their crime, do deserve the death penalty. Why should tax payers have to support them the rest of their lives? Some prisons have more for inmates than the poor, those that have to live on SSI, Social Security or welfare have. Some need to be on these programs, shouldn't they be able to live as well as say a murderer?

Answer 10

No. Think of all the miscarriages of justice that occur - at least without the death penalty we can go some way towards compensating a victim of injustice.