Death penalty for white collar crimes?

Question

Not being radical or inflamitory, but if the results of a CEOs crimes result in many hourly workers loosing every thing they own and causing wide spread loss of money and 401ks and forcing people in their senor years to still have to labor until death, I would say they deserve death not only as punishment but deterent.

Answer 1

I share your disgust for the white collar criminals who have inflicted so much pain and hardship on ordinary working people.

But before you make up your mind on this you should know that there are already huge problems with the death penalty. I think that their sentences need to be much longer than they are. Their crimes should be treated as serious felonies and punished very severely.

In the meantime, here are a few facts about the death penatly-

The death penalty system costs much more than a system that does not have the death penalty. Much of these extra costs come way before the appeals begin. (This money ought to be spent on victims services, which are underfunded.)

Over 120 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence. Some had spent decades on death row. Speeding up the system will guarantee the execution of an innocent person.

“Beyond a shadow of a doubt” is not something that human beings can guarantee. DNA is not a miracle cure for wrongful convictions, it is not available in most homicide cases and, as human beings, we make mistakes. Most of us do not want to see an innocent person killed. After an execution, the case is closed. If the wrong person was executed the real killer is still out there.

More and more states have life without parole on the books. It means what it says and is no picnic to be locked up for 23 of 24 hours a day, forever.

The death penalty can be very hard on the families of murder victims. As the process goes on they are forced to relive their ordeal in the courts and in the media. Life without parole is sure and swift and rarely appealed.

Opposing the death penalty does not mean you excuse brutal crimes or believe murderers should go unpunished. It means you are using common sense.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Uh, the average murderer only spends 14 years behind bars in the USA. Every other crime needs to be measured against that number, since murder has to be the worst crime.

While there is always an impulse to "let em rot" or "hang em high" for every crime, the reality is that society has said that the cost of such punishments does not deter the crimes, nor benefit society. Remember, in the USA, the average death penalty case goes on for 10+ years, and costs millions of dollars -- quite simply, it is cheaper to simply put them away behind bars.

Answer 4

Because of the dollar amount stolen? The Supreme Court has held that the death penalty is only available for murder. Still, putting aside that little problem, what you say makes little sense. How about the small time thief who steals only $100 but it happens to be every dime that the victim has? That seems worse that ripping off those greedy investors who thought they were going to get a 20 percent return and who will not even miss the money.

Answer 5

I believe white collar crimes should be punishable by the amount taken for example thousands=class A felony, millions= life sentences, billions=death. The criminal justice system should enforce strict punishments for white collar crimes. Based on all CEO's are repeating the white collar crime, over , and over.

Answer 6

I can't agree with you on this one, even though I am all for the death penalty.

There is no loss of life involved, so I can't see the taking of one ( although I do believe child molesters should be beaten to death slowly, over a period of weeks).

The other variable in this case is the workers. It is partially their fault that they lost their money. No investor with any sense would put all of their money into a single stock or fund. It is just bad practice. I hate to say anything bad about those who have lost so much, but the truth is, they were lazy and did the easiest thing for them to do with their money and didn't diversify.

Answer 7

I'm in favor of the death penalty for all felonies, but that's just me. We live in the literal land of milk and honey. There is absolutely no excuse to ever commit a crime against any one. The commission of any crime proves that you are unworthy and too dangerous to live among the rest of us. Kill 'em all.

Answer 8

I believe all serious crimes, extortion over $100 000, rapists, drug dealers, murders, child molesters all should be sentenced to death. Not only are we cleaning up the communities and protecting people but we would save millions of dollars a year to sentence these people to death rather than pay to house, clothe educate and feed them in prison. Not to mention protect them from other criminals.

Answer 9

A lot of businessmen and politicians get off with petty sentences like 18 months-2 years because they get good lawyers and know the judge.

Answer 10

No, that's plain revenge.
I think we are having a hard enough time with the "eye-for-an-eye" punishment. Whats next? An eye for a blue eye? Death for material possessions?

I'm not sympathizing with these CEOs, they should at least be made liable for everything they stole, but that sounds like what the Russians and the Nazis used to do.