capital punishment
2007-02-15 14:51:00 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
It has become a problem for American diplomats.
I want to clear up a misunderstanding by one of the people who answered this question.
Deterrence means that a punishment will persuade other people not to commit the same crime. Incapacitation means that the criminal himself will not be able to commit it again.
Both the death penalty and life without parole incapacitate a criminal. The death penalty, however, is not a deterrent. States that have the death penalty actually have higher murder rates than states that do not have it. Also, most people who kill do not think they will be caught (if they think at all.)
Life without parole is an available punishment in 48 states. It means what it says and it is no picnic to be locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, forever.
Opposing the death penalty does not mean you excuse brutal crimes. There are other problems with the death penalty (risk that an innocent person will be executed- DNA is available in less than 10% of all murder cases, the death penalty costs much more than life without parole, the death penalty is very hard on families of murder victims and more.)
2007-02-16 03:43:16 · answer #1 · answered by Susan S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
While I have no problem with capital punishment I think it costs us more as a nation than we get for it, especially since it takes so long from the time of sentencing until the time of execution. There is no deterrent value so the cost in loss of reputation in the world outweighs any positive value.
2007-02-15 23:02:47 · answer #2 · answered by Michael da Man 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maintaining capital punishment makes your mouthing off about freedom and human rights in other countries look more than a little hypocritical. How can you criticise Saddam, for example, for killing his people when you do it yourselves? The gross bias towards coloured people and poor people being executed also renders a lot of the crap with which you go on ludicrous. Equality my ***.
2007-02-16 00:01:26 · answer #3 · answered by iansand 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why is it any of there concern? We arnt worrying about hte poor people in Africa and what they are doing to there people, or in Cuba, ect...
Capital punishment is necessary and I only wish my state had it. If someone ever harmed someone in my family by taking there life, I 100 percent agree there life should be taken, end of story!
2007-02-15 23:00:05 · answer #4 · answered by Bl3ss3dw1thL1f3 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i'm not aware of any effect but capital punishment is getting off easy.to put somebody in a 6 by 8 cell and leavehim there until he rots is far more severe
2007-02-15 22:57:10 · answer #5 · answered by Shark 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Who cares?
I think it's time the United States STOPPED worrying about what the international community thinks and do what we believe to be right and to protect our citizens!!
I hate the fact that every country on the planet thinks they can protest our country's internal decisions (such as Mexicans protesting immigration reform) but then cry fowl when we interfere with them.
I strongly feel we should pull out of the United Nations and let the others fend for themselves. Let us do what is neccessary to take care of ours and let the rest of the world mind it's own business.
2007-02-15 22:55:23 · answer #6 · answered by Raising6Ducklings! 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
There are two kinds of deterrents, general and specific. By hanging a bad guy, I guarantee that specific individual will never commit another crime. And the general deterrent comes into play when his buddies see him swing and decide not to do what he did to get hung.
2007-02-15 23:06:00 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It makes us look like morons.
2007-02-15 22:54:13 · answer #8 · answered by Joseph, II 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋