Who else finds the execution of a human being sickening?

Question

I know there are some nasty people in the world who deserve to die, but surely no one has the right to end another persons life. No matter what a human being has done, God is the only person to judge them. Revenge should not be seen in a civilised society.

No man with a heart has escaped that impression of terror and of doubt in the good, even at the recital, not to speak of the sight, of the executions of men by just such men, by means of rods, the guillotine, the gallows

Leo Tolstoy

Answer 1

I whole-heartedly agree that capital punishment is sickening.

In general, **not talking about Saddam,** there are many reasons that it's wrong...

(1) Irreversible. How would you feel if you were wrongly convicted and were about to be executed? Not good, I bet, not good at all.

(2) Racially unfair. Someone who kills a white person is much more likely to be executed than someone who kills a minority. That places white lives above those of others. That's absolutely wrong.

(3) Economically unfair. When someone has enough money to pay for a good attorney, they are much less likely to be sentenced to death. Also absolutely wrong. Someone shouldn't have their life saved just because they are economically prosperous.

(4) Expensive. It's more expensive to execute someone than it is to keep them in prison for life.

(5) Not a deterrent. There is no statistical difference in homicide rates between states which employ the death penalty and those that don't.

(6) Eye for an eye?? If someone is arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, the system doesn't punish them with assault with a deadly weapon. Doing so would be absolutely unacceptable. I mean, if someone came and broke my legs I would never expect that person to be held down and have his or her legs broken. That would be eye-for-an-eye justice, but it's considered wrong, cruel, and unusual. How is taking a life any better?

(7) We have MANY ways to keep these people from the public. Supermax prisons confine inmates to their cells for over 23 hours a day. They rarely have any contact with anyone. Escapes from supermax institutions are rare. There is little threat to the public when someone is in custody.

(8) Negative psychological impact on executioners. Guards who are responsible for carrying out executions often suffer from serious depression, anxiety, and other problems. They are at greater risk for alcoholism and divorce and heart disease. They die at a younger age than other guards. These problems are not pre-existing (it's not that people with these problems are choosing to become executioners) -- rather, the problems increase in severity as the number of executions performed increases.

(9) Moral argument. What right do we have to take another person's life? What does that tell others? That murder can be okay.

(10) Everyone has a family. When a person is executed, their family loses a loved one. The family is often innocent and is harmed by the loss of one of their members. This leaves women without husbands, mothers without sons, children without fathers and mothers. (I know that those who are executed have almost always done something awful, but they are people who are loved by someone.)

(11) There is no way to painlessly execute someone. Even lethal injection has been proven to be painful. When someone is executed through lethal injection, it appears peaceful because the person is paralyzed. In actuality, they first experience cardiac arrest. They then suffocate. They are conscious throughout the process. Electrocution burns someone from the inside out. Many people have had to be electrocuted 2 or even 3 times before dying. The gas chamber is still used in a few states. In one case, it took a man 40 minutes for a man to die in a gas chamber. What about hanging? It breaks the neck and then one slowly loses the ability to breath. Firing squad? Not an immediate death.

(12) It lets the criminal off the hook. Death is an easy way out. Being locked in prison FOREVER is not fun. Death row, maximum security prisons, and supermax prisons are not fun. I would much prefer that someone live in that environment forever than find peace in an execution.

When someone is executed, at least 2 executioners are used because prison officials have realized that when one has the knowledge that they are personally responsible for another's death that that person suffers tremendously. For example, when someone is executed through lethal injection 2 guards are given needles that are injected into the prisoner. One of the needles has the deadly substance in it, while the other needle contains a harmless placebo. This is done so that each guard can say, "Maybe I'm not responsible." Why would we condone a practice that is known to cause harmful effects to those that have to carry it out? Doesn't that demonstrate some level of awareness that it is wrong?

Finally, it's ironic that it is considered cruel and unusual and unethical to lock someone in a cell and literally never let them out but it's considered okay to execute someone. Why can't we lock someone in a cell with nothing but a toilet and hose to wash themselves, and feed them through a slat in the door and NEVER let them out? Because that's considered inhumane. Prisoners in such environments become psychotic and the justice system can't support an environment which fosters insanity -- so how can they support a method which literally takes lives?

I have pretty strong opinions about this lol...

Answer 2

Saddam did some evil things but, I work on a checkout and all day I had to look at the pictures if him with a noose around his neck on the sunday papers. I didn't like it at all. and I think they should of put it on the inside page and not the front page. Children could see these pictures easily and I don't think the images should of been just thrust in peoples faces. I just have to keep what he did to his own in my mind so I will not feel bad about a persons life being taken. He tortured his own! I just have to think about that!. Revenge would of been for him to spend the rest of his days with no freedom, I know I would prefer dying over beng locked up, with no freedom for the rest of his life. Execution doesn't stop murder at all. You are still more likely to be murdered in the US than you are in Britain. 7 times more likely actually. The homocide rate in washington dc is 40 per 100,000 and it's only 2 per 100,000in the UK.

Answer 3

Right. Time to cut the crap, people.

a) God is not a definite metaphysical propostion. What people do on earth will be judged on earth, not in an uncertian fantasy realm.

b) No government should be allowed to execute anyone. The law is by its very nature misguided, corrupt, bigoted, inefficient, and controlled by a select elite. The death penalty is the final product of a dictatorship.

c) Use anecdotes all you may, they don't change the fundemental arguement.

e) By using the death penalty, the user forfeits the moral high ground.

Answer 4

I'm not a religious person. A lot of people say that only God can punish them, but since I don't believe in God, I don't believe that's true. But, I am still against capital punishment. There are many many reasons why it's no good. It's expensive (it costs more than keeping people alive, with all the court costs) It's not reversible (When we gained the technology to use DNA evidence, hundreds of people were cleared off death row. Imagine how many innocent people died before that happened!) It's never been shown to deter crime (crime actually went down a little in Canada when they go rid of it, not necessarly because they got rid of it, but it sure as hell didn't go up) and I also believe that we have no right to decide who gets to live and who gets to die. It gets done out of anger and vengence, not justice.

88 countries have abolished the death penalty, but the United States is too conservative, it probably won't happen for a while here, if ever.

Answer 5

You are right that it is up to God to take the life of a murderer. And He has delegated that responsibility to us: "Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death: but he shall surely be put to death." ... "So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood pollutes the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it." Numbers 35:31 and 35:33. You've got the legal delegation, now deal with who gets capital punishment. Even if your formulation is that only mass murderers get the death penalty, Sadam fit that bill. A civilized society stays that way when murderers are removed from it.

Answer 6

I agree. The whole "eye for an eye" notion is completely medieval. Many European Union countries are also opposed to the death penalty, so it really annoys me when the Christian Right comes out and points fingers at the "liberals" for being against it. You would think that anyone with half a heart and half a brain would see the barbarity in capital punishment. To think we have progressed so little.

Answer 7

It's a tough question faced by governments across the world and throughout history; the problem is in this world of escalating violence the alternatives of encarceration don't seem to be sufficient, and prison space is bnow also at breakpoint. It's not a solution without problems, but unfortunately the alternative punishments carry the same moral issues!

Answer 8

I do!

I was disgusted and sickened by the news that Saddam was hanged. I have no illusions about the man, I know that he did terrible things and that a lot of people suffered horribly at his hands.

But are we any better than him if we can put a noose around his neck and choke the life out of him. (Whilst filming his humiliation and terror, no less) It made me feel ashamed to be a human being.
.
I am not a Christian, I don't even believe in a God. I just think that we can be better than this..

A sad day :-(

Sparky x

Answer 9

If we changed our laws to what Iraq has (within 30 days) there would no longer be a need for it. Would make a great deterent. I think 20+ years in Prison when sentenced to die is not much of a deterent.

Sorry I have no problem with it, I have the problem with how long it takes to carry out the sentence.

Answer 10

Animals kill other animals. People aren't much different.
Sympathy for 'people' like Saddam is a big sign of weakness and unwillingness to stick up for yourself.
In WW2 the famous Cadbury family refused to give chocolate to the soldiers who were fighting for their freedom. That's sickening.