How Do You Feel About The Recent Death Penalty News?

Question

Recently there has been news about states looking to toughen the laws regarding people beng put to death. Child rapists, rapists, kidnappers, and accomplices to murder are now looking to be executed as well. I am not looking for answers on whether you feel there should or shouldn't be a death penalty but how do you feel about people being executed who did not actually commit murder? Do you feel execution should only be for people who physically took another life?

Answer 1

Execution is cruel and unusual and barbarian . The rest of society should not stoop to the level of thugs & murderers . Let them be punished for the rest of their lives when they commit heinous crimes ; but to kill even one innocent person , in itself , isn't worth the risk .

Answer 2

I do not support the death penalty. If we are going to use the death penalty I think it should be only for the most extreme and heinous crimes like serial murders where there is no question that the person is guilty. Rape and child molestation are horrible crimes but we have the option of sentencing these offenders to life without parole. I just feel very uneasy about capital punishment. I don't believe we should sink to this level. Minorities and poor people seem to get sentenced to death more often. Also, with DNA, many people on death row were found to be innocent. How shameful would that be if we had executed those people?

Answer 3

I would like to see child rapists and rapists get the death penalty. The person the victim was before this type of crime is gone, just as if they were murdered. However, there are reasons why the death penalty should be suspended until the faults in the sysytem can be fixed. In America, not just from state to state, but from county to county, there is no uniform standard of who deserves the death penalty. Also, in many states the death penalty is used more against blacks than any other race. Sloppy and biased police work in past death penalty cases also calls for some sort of oversight by an independent body to make sure those people on death row should be on death row. If we are going to use the "eye for eye" system of justice in our country we should be certain the person we are killing actually did the crime.

Answer 4

I know a couple of the over 120 people freed from death row with evidence (DNA) of their innocence. Ray Krone and Kirk Bloodsworth are fine, law abiding citizens, never had a criminal record before being caught up in this nightmare. Really good men. If it could happen to them, it can happen to anyone.
It is hard for me to believe that some people think the occasional execution of an innocent person is acceptable.

The appeals system is designed only to decide if a trial was fair and in accord with constitutional standards, not to second guess guilt or innocence. The 123 men who were released from death row were found to be innocent in spite of the system, not because of it. Once an execution is carried out the case is closed. (This means that the real killer remain on the loose if the wrong person was convicted and executed.

In the last year or so, there are four cases where there is significant evidence that an innocent person was executed.

1. Calvin Willingham- executed for setting a fire that led to the deaths of several people. The techniques of investigating fires in criminal cases have greatly advanced. They now show that the fire was an accident, not arson. Texas.

2. Carlos DeLuna- executed in Texas for a fatal stabbing. Sloppy police work, a failure to pursue a more likely suspect (who bragged of being the actual killer and about getting another man to pay for it.

3. Gary Graham. Texas. details available at Death Penalty Information Center
4. Calvin Griffiths. Missouri. details available at Death Penalty Information Center

More will certainly turn up. Death penalty supporters have always claimed that no innocent person has been executed in the modern era (1976-present.) We do know that over 120 people have been released from death row with hard evidence of their innocence. (That is over 10% of the number of executions)
It is likely that more than 4 innocent people were executed, but because executions normally close cases, we may never know for sure.

And no, I don't think the risk is worth expanding the death penalty.

Answer 5

No I think rapists and child rapists should be executed ina brutal way. They deserve it. Killing the childhood of an innocent is a heinous crime and should be dealt with as such.

To kidnappers and accomplices to murder they should rot in jail for the rest of their life.

Answer 6

The biggest being that the U.S. is one of the civilized/western ONLY nations that still uses this sort of punishment. The biggest issue is that our courts system isn't "absolute" ... yet, death is. I wonder how many innocent people are in prison? What if they are on death row?

Answer 7

I honestly beleive that the death penality for child molesters has been a long time coming.They should just take these ba*tards into a room with a hole in the floor and shot them in the head,no last meal,nothing,kill 'em.
Sounds harsh I know but it's how I feel.

Answer 8

well sometimes innocent people have to die. I agree and I think they should've made this decision sooner whether you physically take someones life or mentally it's all the same those women and children who have been raped lifes are basically over whether they are in the ground or not!