Why are people so concerned about the rights of people on death row?

Question

In florida and california they are puting off all executions for the time being because they might be cruel and unusual punishments. But when these people who are on death row were stabbing, shooting, raping, molesting, and torturing their victims, no one dares say that that is cruel and unusual. Regardless of whether lethal injection is unconstitutional, these people still committed horrible crimes and ought to pay the price!

Answer 1

We worry about them in case one of us gets mistakenly sent there.

If you were sent to death row mistakenly and the governor was given conclusive evidence of your innocence after the needles were inserted but before the drugs were pumped in, wouldn't you want those needles to be clean?

Also, because we're civilized. If we aren't, what's the point of getting rid of them?

And the point of protecting the rights of the accused is to protect us all from abuse of power by government & law enforcement officials. It's funny how the people who say they want to limit government are often the same people who want to remove checks on the government's power.

Answer 2

We, the people who don't brutally murder other people, are concerned about the rights of the accused *because* we aren't as whacked-in-the-head as they are that we would inject a needle full of poisons into the skin, and not a vein, and leave the person wincing, blowing, mouthing words as he dies an excrutiating death.

We, the people who don't kill other people for drugs, money or just because, have a moral obligation *not* to lower ourselves down to the level of a murderer. As the saying goes, "Two wrongs don't make a right!"

Finally, you are wrong when you say that "no one dares say" that the way a person is killed in a capital crime was cruel and unusual. The mere fact that a jury sentenced someone to die for the crime speaks to the idea that society condemns what he/she did. And don't think a prosecutor didn't stand before the jury and lay out in detail the brutality of the accused's actions.

Bush (the baby brother) and Schwarzeneggar were correct to halt executions. If we're going to kill inmates, then it is a moral imperative that they be carried out in a humane way. Otherwise, the only thing that truly separates "us" from "them" is a prison cell.

Answer 3

These criminals on death row do deserve as much suffering and death as they dished out to their victims when they raped, molested, shot, stabbed, and tortured them.
I have utter contempt for the American Civil Liberties Union whose stated mission is to "defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to ever person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Murderers don't have any rights.

Answer 4

Well, you want to be 110% sure that when you are exectuting someone that they are guilty WAY beyond a reasonable doubt. Many people who are on death row have been there for years--long before advances in DNA and forensic technology came about. Have you ever heard of the Innocense Project? It has to do with making sure that the people who are on death row are tehre because they deserve it. A lot of poor people who can't afford good legal counsel get railroaded by the system and there are statistics that show a black person is more likely to be sentenced to death compared to a white person for committing the same crime.

That said, if you are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt (ie BTK killer) then you should get the death penalty and your appeals should be limited.

Answer 5

It's a good question. They put the executions on hold because of the screw up in Florida where the lethal injection was botched and the guy lived twice the normal time.

Bring back the guillotine... quick and painless.

Answer 6

I'm only concerned that people on death row might be innocent. In Illinois they have found several cases where this is true. That is why that state put a moretorium on the death penalty.

Personally the D-penalty is a bunch of bunk. I think life in jail is a more severe punishment. And it costs the taxpayers less money. The death penalty is meant to deter, which it clearly does not. And do we live in the middle ages where an a eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth is the mentality? I thought this was a civilized country!

Answer 7

I've heard of people dying because a person on death row got the heart transplant.
Snazzy Death Row Ideas
**remove 3 liters of blood from an inmate daily (solves blood shortages)
**Use them for Medication Tests
**Use them for Science Experiments
**Manual Labor

Answer 8

Because they're idiots. Just like the retards that allow people to stay on death row for a 26 years (as the case in florida). They deserve less than they gave and it should take about the same amount of time to carry out as it took for the victim to die immediatley after sentencing..

Answer 9

Because out criminal justice system is not perfect, after all O.J. got away, how can you be 100% sure you are killing the right man? You can't.
Beside that, these people shouldn't get the easy way out, they should rot in prison for the rest of their lives. They may not regret what they did but they will never be happy living in cages.

Answer 10

i agree ... the inmates have more rights than the the victims & their families ... you have to think didn't they show cruel & unusual punishment for the person they killed??? I think they care too much about them ... and nothing for the victims. I'm all for malfunctions when I think of how much the family and the victims suffered!!