is capital punishment barbaric and immoral?

Answer 1

Capital punishment is not barbaric and immoral. I will tell you what is barbaric and immoral. Letting Gary Ridgway, The Green River Killer, have a life sentence with out parole after having plead guilty to the 68 murders of women, when police has a lot of
circumstantial evidence, and some conclusive evidence that Ridgway committed at least another 400 or more murders of women in 3 states over the last 25 years. All though the women he killed were prostitutes, they did not deserve to die by his or anyone else's hands. Prostitution is a crime, but not a crime punishable by death.

Crimes that are, should be exclusively, death penalty cases are murders, rape, or pedophilia. No exceptions!!!!!! I say this because their are lots and lots of psychological studies that show people capable of committing these types of crimes even once, will continue to commit them again and again, getting more violent and worse each time. We can not reform them, and we should not pay for their continued existence. As the pro choicers would say about unborn babies, these people are inconvenient and ruin peoples lives and therefore should not be allowed to live.

Answer 2

We have a right to life. This is the most fundamental right set out in the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence. No one should be able to take that right away ESPECIALLY the state.
Why???
The basic premise of capital punishment is an eye-for-an-eye (retribution). If an individual wrongfully kills a person, that individual is put to death. But what if the state (through it's public servants) wrongfully kills an individual? Can the state (and those servants) be put to death? NO!
What we have is an "legal" imbalance of power that overwhelmingly sides with the state. The power should always be balanced or favor the individual over the state.
Any other argument for capital punishment such as prevention/deterrent is unfounded. The best deterrent is increasing the chances of catching the criminal. For example, ask a store owner what works best to deter shop lifting:
a) Putting up a sign that says shoplifters will have to pay a $5000 fine and be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
OR
b) Putting up security cameras everywhere, having watchful workers, and having sensors at the entrance/exit of the store.

Lastly, I would also argue that killing a convicted murderer is a release from punishment, not a punishment in itself.
So, yes I see it as immoral.

Answer 3

You put your question in loaded terms, but, yes, it is wrong for society to take a human life.
For the naysayers, please note that studies have shown statistically that capital punishment has not proved to deter other capital crimes.
It is more costly to go through the capital punishment process than a life sentence. As punishment goes, is not life imprisonment w/o parole a greater punishment that the sweet needle of lethal injection?
Finally, is it not barbaric and immoral for a civil society to stoop down and play out the part of a twisted, perhaps, diseased criminal mind of the individual so executed? And, if it later is proved that a mistake has been made, how you you say: Oh, sorry about that.

Answer 4

Let's assume that it isn't. We would certainly be putting a lot of faith in the justice system in assuming that there would be no innocent people executed. If not barbaric, is it a good example for the institution to be setting? The idea of killing being a solution to problems would be engrained into culture. A culture that condones institutional violence will become more and more violent.

I believe that capitol punishment is barbaric and "immoral". These are not the reasons I am opposed to it though. Some things which are percieved as barbaric and immoral to some people are great in my mind. I think that the justice system is corrupt and the fat *** police would execute every good looking young man such as myself so they wouldn't feel insecure anymore. If we want less murder and rape, we should solve the underlying societal circumstances which lead to these. Civil rights and acceptance. Better schools and more social programs to help the poor such as national health care. More gun control.

Its ironic that many who favor the death penalty are against gun control.

Its totally ****** when people who are innocent get executed while fat ***** like cheney get away with robbing from all of us, endangering our societies stability.

Answer 5

Disclaimer: I do realize that criminals should be punished. Being against the death penalty makes me no less logical than the next person; I am not pro-criminal, against justice, or anything of that matter. It's unfortunate that I find it upon myself to do this, but I have gotten enough attacks for being anti-death that it isn't even funny.

Concerning the question, I believe it to be immoral, yes. As for barbaric, as "un-cruel" as they attempt to make it, it still serves the same purpose as the worst of them. So, as far as I am concerned, I do find it barbaric and immoral. Let God judge the convicted, not the State. Punish them as they deserve, but in the end, capital punishment is simply legal murder.

Answer 6

is capital punishment barbaric? No, it is totally human! No other species in this world "kills" another being for a reason other than immediate self defence / accidental / for food.

is capital punishment immoral? Yes. what is moral is always above the values and actions of a person or entity that wants its own good. When you want to kill, you want something irreverable and damaging happen to some one else for your own good

Answer 7

Yes, because the system is not perfect. People who were on death row were later found innocent by DNA evidence. Even if you kill one innocent person for the sake of keeping the death penalty, that is one too many.

In addition, you can be sentenced to the death penalty for felony murder, which is if a murder happens while you were involved in the crime- i.e. your friend went in and robbed a convenience store and shot the clerk, came out, and you drove the getaway car- with no intention of anyone getting shot. However, you cannot be sentenced to the death penalty if you sodomize and rape a four year old girl and beat and torture her for hours within inches of her life and then leave her in the woods to die- but it just so happens a jogger finds her and she lives, but with severe brain damage and disfigurement. There is such a disparity in these two examples- who deserves the death penalty and who doesnt? But the first one will be sentenced to death, and has in similar situations.

I dont disagree with the death penalty, but in it's present form, it is a system that is full of holes.

Answer 8

Only if you can pay for them to rot in jails, yes.

Are the criminals' crimes barbaric and immoral? Let the punishment fit the crime.

Answer 9

No, I believe that some crimes are so bad that the only way society can protect itself from that criminal is to put that person to death. It might not stop the next person, but it will stop the criminal from ever doing it again.

And before some people get bent out of shape, if life without parole meant just that, you might be able to talk me in to it, but there are people who got life without parole who are walking out and about now. An yes i can prove it, and I'm not talking about people who won an appeal, or escaped.

Escape is the other problem with life without parole.

Try to leave things a little better then you found them.

Answer 10

I think that there are some people (e.g. serial killers and sex offenders) who are absolutely worthless and should be done away with, but the main problem that I have with the death penalty is the fact that way too many people have been wrongfully convicted. You can always release someone from prison, but you can't reverse an execution.