what are your views on capital punishment?

Answer 1

Bring it back NOW!

Answer 2

I've been watching (no. I'm not an officer of the state - though I might be), and I see that all the old arguments are being brought forward.
As I, a simple man, see it, it is plainly wrong for a state to take the life of one of its citizens if it (the state) outlaws murder. The state is effecitvely saying "you can not kill, but I can". If it allows murder then that might be a different scenario, but I can't imagine it.
People convicted of murder, in the western system, are convicted "beyond any reasonable doubt", so let's foerget the caveats of DNA, CCTV, etc. etc. If you are found guilty in a western democracy it is "beyond reasonable doubt".
So, how come there are people who, under that system, are found to have been innocent all along?
Perhaps it is because of the frailty of the process that the English judicial system and parliament decided to do away with the death penalty.
To differentiate levels of offence, to the degree that some responders have, is simply illogical. You cannot be so picky.
That is exactly why we no longer have the death penalty in the UK.
Unless and until there is an absolute certainty that the whole process gets it right, and allowing that people make mistakes, I suggest that so long as judgements have to be made, by the police, by forensics, by the CPS, by judges, by jurors, by courts of appeal, by people I'm sure I've left out, that it will be unlikely that there will always be the absolute certainty of getting it right every time
Exactly how do you say sorry to the relatives and loved ones of someone you got it wrong about?

Answer 3

Most murders are committed when the person is in a highly emotional state. They are not really thinking about consequences, and thus capital punishment is largely useless as a deterrent to murders.

Studies show that capital punishment falls more often on racial minorities and the mentally feeble-minded.

Answer 4

Forget the whole thing.
If you had a kid, and that kid was killed, you'd be unspeakably upset.
If your child was killed during an 8% increase in murders statewide, you might wonder what caused it.
If there is a body of research that says that everytime the state announces a capital punishment, this is the kind of increase in pain we will see for its citizens, would you support it?
No more than the victim's families would support letting their own family's killer live...
So, since my ethics are very pragmatic, I say:
Stop the killing, stop wasting money.
But do chain them to the walls with as many locks as you see fit to prevent them from killing guards and getting out.
You want it to look like a nasty old dungeon? I don't really care.
Oh, except one or two are indeed innocent.
OK well keep them clean and lock them up as you wish.

Answer 5

It is a barbaric form of revenge; the "humane" lethal injection is still killing and does not bring back to life deceased victims. Too many variables during trials that make the judicial system too flawed (police that lie and coerce testimony, DAs that hide exculpatory evidence, bad/incompetent defense attorneys, faulty eye-witnesses accounts/testimony, jurors with personal agendas and/or biases and prejudices, witnesses that fail to come forward, public outcry often directed at the accused who may be entirely innocent, faulty investigations which makes the accused guilty by accusation, etc). Too many minority members disproportionately on death row; questionable application of the law for people of color for the same crime.

DNA evidence has recently discovered about 100 innocent prisoners on death row (all investigations cease once the accused is found guilty and, moreso, once he/she is executed; I wonder how many innocent prisoners have been executed since), which leads me to believe that the same amount of guilty criminals are roaming the streets committing crimes and preying on society. Capital punishment is not a crime deterrent.

The only time that capital punishment should be rigorously enforced, in my view, is when someone has been proven beyond the shadow of doubt of having sexually abused and/or tortured and killed a minor or a woman! Sexual predators cannot be rehabilitated and should either be given life without the possibility of parole or executed. If sentenced to life without parole, they should be made to learn a trade and to work full time in prison, maybe making clothes or footwear to be shipped to poor and elderly people in Third World countries (Africa, Haiti, etc). Also, death penalty should be enforced for those prisoners that kill or are a danger to the other prisoners and, particularly, the prison personnel.

The death penalty is too permanent; you can't bring back someone who is later proven innocent but in the case of sexual predators and incorrigible and dangerous prisoners, it should be an option that should be seriously considered.

Answer 6

So far, it's a better theory than practice. Ultimately, there is a statistically proven inevitability a person will get the DP if they are male and an ethnic minority (black, hispanic, etc). While I have no problem removing the abhorrent from society (T.Bundy, Gacy, Dahmer, etc) with great prejudice, these kinds of horrendously vile criminals are not a large percentage of those found on Death Row. This is an emotionally charged issue that needs a rational debate.

Answer 7

bringing capital punishment back here in the UK, could b the answer 2 stopping the habitual serious criminal.
the death penalty needs 2 b re-instated, damn the human rights act. of course it's the against the criminals human rights, he wants 2 continue maiming, killing, robbing the innocent and never face anything worse than a slap on the wrist!
there's no viable deterrent other than death.
or at least remove their human rights 4 the duration of their prison sentence, so they can b punished properly!

Answer 8

It's proven not to be a deterrent, as administered today it is more costly than a lifetime of solitary confinement, no doubt people that are innocent of the crime accused have been put to death by mistake, and when you consider all of this...the only thing remaining that can be said about capital punishment is that it serves as a form of vengence.

Do we want to be known as a vengeful society?

Answer 9

I think we should have capital punishment for the most serious crimes, eg where somebody is killed and there is a sexual motive, especially if the victim is a child.
Habitual criminals of all kinds should be executed as well. Prison obviously isn't a deterrent for them, so they are not worth trying to rehabilate (and I don't care if they have a drugs problem, that's not OUR problem).

We are too soft on crime, which is why we have so much crime!

Answer 10

Where it is proven beyond all doubt that someone murdered then hanging should be brought back..... especially for the murder of a police offficer. I would be the hangman and I expect there would be thousands of other volunteers too.A life for a life is fair justice.Why should a proven murderer languish in a cushy jail at the tax payers' expense ? I say hang 'em.
It's all very well for the Bible Bashers to say God said this ,and God said that, but God can't bring back a murdered child or wife or husband.

Answer 11

This one really brings out the Caring Sharing Sandal Wearing Brigade. The death penalty is Not a deterrent, it is a punishment for a grave crime. It must be quick and humane but I beleive it is right and proper to have it enshrined in law.