Crime in the United States: Death Penalty should be reinstated?

Question

Jails are over crowded, killings are not outside of but also inside the prisons. Afterwards society seems to accept this concept of the norm of way of living. Not to mentioned that this carries into the family life and school and work. Nobody seems to see or be aware of seriousness this will eventually be uncontrollable and there will be shear disaster and will no order , but the order of the strongest . Police will be no match or Marshal Law will helpless.

Answer 1

News flash... The death penalty is legal in all but a few US states.

Answer 2

Umm, I don't understand your question.
Last I heard, the death penalty is a state issue not a federal one. And last I heard most states that have the death penalty still use it.
If you are talking about the appeals and stuff, then maybe they should be sped up, but I do believe that there should be appeals in all death penalty cases....executing the wrong person would be something that I could not live with.
Also, while there are deaths inside of prison, how would you stop that? by executing the person who was called the murderer without a trial?
I still dont get your question. It needs to be made clearer

Answer 3

Prisons are overcrowded because we sentence low level drug offenders and other non violent criminals to lengthy terms. Here are some solid facts about the death penalty itself. I think your alarm is misplaced. By the way, lifers are among the least violent prisoners.

The death penalty is an issue that needs to be considered using solid facts. Here are a few - all verifiable and sourced.

Re: Possibility of executing an innocent person
Over 120 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence. Many had already served over 2 decades on death row. If we speed up the process we are bound to execute an innocent person. Once someone is executed the case is closed. If we execute an innocent person we are not likely to find that out and, also, the real criminal is still out there.

Re: DNA
DNA is available in no more than 10% of murder cases. It is not a miracle cure for sentencing innocent people to death. It’s human nature to make mistakes.

Re: Appeals
Our appeals system is designed to make sure that the trial was in accord with constitutional standards, not to second guess whether the defendant was actually innocent. It is very difficult to get evidence of innocence introduced before an appeals court.

Re: Deterrence
The death penalty isn’t 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: cost
The death penalty costs far more than life in prison. The huge extra costs start to mount up even before the trial. There are more cost effective ways to prevent and control crime.

Re: Alternatives
48 states have life without parole on the books. It means what it says, is swift and sure and is rarely appealed. Being locked in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, forever, is certainly no picnic. Life without parole incapacitates a killer (keeps him from re-offending) and costs considerably less than the death penalty.

Re: Who gets the death penalty
The death penalty isn’t 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
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.

Opposing the death penalty doesn’t mean you condone brutal crimes or excuse people who commit them. According to a Gallup Poll, in 2006, 47% of all Americans prefer capital punishment while 48% prefer life without parole. Americans are learning the facts and making up their minds using common sense, not revenge or an eye for an eye mentality.

Answer 4

When you can show us how killing people teaches that killing is wrong, we'll consider the death penalty. You cannot; nor can you provide evidence that any government which condones the death penalty has ever seen crime drop even a little due to the application of capital punishment. We need not react to crime by becoming barbarians; there are better and more effective ways.

Answer 5

I think the death penalty really needs to be put back into the law systems, for all those people that have done crimes that give them a life sentence, such as murder and rape. I think if the death penalty was back in the crime rate would go down, the people will start thinking that they won't be spending their lives in a wonderful jail, with everything they will ever need, and never have to pay for it, they will be sentence to death, and there is no return to their families.

Answer 6

Murderers only make up a small % of the prision population. Over 60% are drug related, that is the real problem. On the death penalty side I believe it should be in force, but modified. People sitting on death row for 18 years is a joke and not much of a deterient.

Answer 7

Ummm...the death penalty was already reinstated.

And some governors (including Texas) are overturning the death penalty because they've discovered too many innocent people were sitting on death row.

Repeal the war on drugs, and you might just clear out some of those jails.

Answer 8

Has the death penalty been abolished? Last time I checked we were using it.

In 2005, the federal government executed 6, and in 04 executed 10. Many more were executed at the state level.

Reinstate? It seems to be going along just fine.

Answer 9

Capital punishment is still an option for DAs in the US, last I heard.

Amen, mamasquirrel. Prohibition puts innocent people behind bars for the possession of a plant, yet we can drink alcohol and smoke tobacco pretty much at whim, without so much as a squeak from the FDA.

Answer 10

death penalty if it is the wishes of the victims' families. Also forced deportation and exile to remote islands (e.g. Greenland, Antarctica, Samoa)