i keep seeing these questions about the death penalty...?

Question

and sooo many people are against it. i wonder, what would you propose we do to re-offending child molesters, rapists, serial killers? the people who continue to commit these crimes regardless of being thrown in jail for a few years, let out only to recommit the crime...?

what would be a better way to punish them? why do so many think we should feed, clothe, house these people?

Answer 1

I'm for it as long as there is absolutely positive proof of guilt and previous efforts to rehabilitate have failed. We pay millions to feed, house, and clothe these people.

Answer 2

I used to work in a prison, and most Child Molesters and Rapists are proud of what they did, most of them saying they would do it again when they got out. Bragging to each other about their last victims as if it were a game to them. Jail to them is just a free hotel room. Serial killers? Never met one, but the murderers I met tend to have an attitude problem that would normally make them unfit for society anyway. They repent for taking a life, but normally they have an underlying violent personality that might cause them to kill again. My biggest experience was with the gang members. The one's who kill each other and take pride in doing it, no matter what happens. You'd be surprised how many criminals take pride in being an inmate. Like it's a status symbol or something to be desired. So take it from a former guard, some offenders cannot be corrected, some don't even want to be corrected. Sometimes they are just waiting to get back out so they can rape, molest, or murder again. Sometimes they do it just to get thrown back in, because they get free everything without having to work for it.

It's these repeat offenders and people who take pride in their crimes that help me support the death penalty. Sure, executions aren't pretty or anything, but it gives the justice system a way to deal with repeat offenders who take pride in their crimes and those who view prison as just a vacation. Sure, you can lock a person up for life, but what if that's what they want? What if they want a lifetime of free tv, free food, and a warm bed, all at the expense of the taxpayers? How do you punish them then?

Answer 3

This is an issue that needs to be considered in the light of verifiable facts. First, you asked for alternatives.

Re: Alternatives
More and more states have life without parole on the books. Life without parole means what it says and is no picnic. People with this sentence can spend 23 hours a day locked in a tiny cell. Forever.

Some people who answered your question object to spending money to keep murderers alive. Here is what they should know.

Re: cost
The death penalty costs far more than life in prison. Extra costs start building up even before a trial. (Did you know that death penalty trials actually consist of two trials, with separate sets of witnesses?) In my opinion, if the death penalty is abolished,
we should be spending the money that would be saved on much needed victims' services.

Re: Possibility of executing an innocent person
Over 120 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence.

Re: DNA
DNA evidence is available in no more than 20% of all murder cases. It is no guarantee that we will never execute an innocent person. It is human nature to make mistakes.

Re: False confessions
Among the many cases of people being released from death row with conclusive evidence of their innocence are several who had confessed. (Walter Olgrod, Earl Washington, David Keaton, Ronald Jones and more). These men were coerced into confessing (beatings, mental coercion of retarded individuals.)

Re: speed
If we speed the process we are bound to execute an innocent person.

Re: Deterrence
The death penalty is not a deterrent. Murder rates are actually higher in states with the death penalty than in states without it. Moreover, people who kill or commit other serious crimes do not think they will be caught (if they think at all.)


Re: Who gets the death penalty
The death penalty is not reserved for the “worst of the worst,” but rather for defendants with the worst lawyers. When is the last time a wealthy person was sentenced to death, let alone executed??

Re: Victims families
People should know that the death penalty is very hard on victims’ families. They must relive their ordeal in the courts and the media. Life without parole is sure, swift and rarely appealed. Some victims families who support the death penalty in principal prefer life without parole because of how the death penalty affects families like theirs.

Last of all, opposing the death penalty does not mean a person condones brutal crimes or excuses the people who commit them. I believe that the dialogue on the death penalty should be based on verifiable facts. People should make up their minds using common sense not revenge.

Answer 4

What needs to happen is that the criminal justice and prison systems (in the US, at least) need some tweeking. There has to be a way to make a jail sentence a punishment while still respecting the basic rights a person has just because he or she is alive. And let me tell you, television is NOT one of those rights.

Statistics can be made to say almost anything anyone wants them to say, but there are numerous findings that indicate that it is cheaper to imprision someone than execute them, mostly due to the costs involved with the appeals process.

I do not support the death penalty. I think that we as a civilized society can find ways of dealing with criminals other than killing them. Besides, if we legistlate that killing is wrong, where is the logic in using it as a punishment? Granted, my emotional side would love to string up a rapist and let him be tortured within an inch of his life, but that would make me little better than him. Justice is one thing, but vengence is another.

Answer 5

From a Catholic point of view:

Jesus, John 8:1-11, spares a women guilty of adultery whom the Mosaic Law said should be stoned to death.

If the guilty person's identity and responsibility has been fully determined then non-lethal means to defend and protect the people's safety from the aggressor are more in keeping with the common good and the dignity of the human person.

The Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives.

However in today's modern society, the capability of rendering the offender incapable of doing harm - without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

I was always Pro-death penalty, until they FINALLY excecuted this one guy a few years back.....He was a big beefy guy-lots of muscle mass. They didn't calculate his weight as part of the dosage of drugs they gave him.They did his IV and everything....it took him nearly an hour to die because they honked it up! He suffered for an hour, dying, gasping, sweating, ugh! I relize his suffering for an hour probably doesn't compare to the crimes he has commited. But I don't think it's very humane on our part to prolong suffering on somebody. I'd rather let God deal with his soul. A still think the death penalty is a good idea, but it needs to change. I think we should do it execution style- quick and done with. (and we shouldn't wait 30 years to do it! I'm in CA most die before they ever get the neddle!)

Answer 7

I actually am not against the death penalty. I just picture one of my kids being abused or worse...and all I can think of is that I would want this person dead- I know sounds harsh, but as a christian I am to forgive them too. I know my husband would hunt them down and kill them himself, he told me dont be surprised if he ends up in jail if something like this ever happened, because he would want to kill that person himself. All I said was "wow"
--so yah I dont know what to think-- but that I am not one to be against the death penalty- for justice should be served- and this question is great with what God has done for us, through Jesus Christ- why do so many people think they should be allowed into heaven and not cast into hell? Same reasons---sin is a major crime in God's eyes. Without forgiveness one is to be punished and it is hell- I know that is blunt, but it is hard for people to see the analogy because they do not have God's mind- For His ways are not our ways! But He is Just, just like our Justice system has it's way- God has His way. But I should be praying that these criminals out there would be saved- completely turned around. Because that would be an awesome testimony, and bring glory to God. Yah they should not be let out of jail that is for sure!

Answer 8

My problems with the death penalty have nothing to do with the morality of killing criminals: they have to do with the number of death penalty cases in which the underlying innocence of the person on death row has been established. If even one person is incorrectly executed by the state, then the system does not work. Also, because of the nature of the appeals system, it costs more to execute people than to feed, clothe, and house them for their natural lives.

On a side note, it is funny how many people who follow a man executed by the state 2,000 years ago and bemoan the fact that he was executed are eager to see people... executed by the state.

Answer 9

There speaks the voice of reason, not. Again there is no evidence that the death penalty does anything other than saisfy a blood lust. Riddle me this why do all the countries that have the death penalty have higher murder rates than those who do not.

Those that have higher rates of religious belief and gun ownership also have higher murder rates, seeing a pattern here?

Answer 10

Um, we don't HAVE to let them out. "Life without possibility of parole" is what two of my grandmom's murderers were sentenced with.

I think we should feed and house these people because that is what society does for others. There are many models of prisons that are more self-sustaining and don't require as much tax-payer input. Some require none.

Answer 11

My personal opinion.
All human are sinner, why we need death penalty, it is really unhuman. For the Very very BAD people just give them life time in jail thats all. Do you think if you kill that bad guy make you different with them.
But for sure do not let the BAD BAD guy out of our jail system.