Death penalty...Good or Bad? Explain?

Answer 1

The death penalty is a touchy subject. Many of us were taught that justice is blind and that justice will be served but often times it is not done to our satisfaction. For our sense of morality and what it right the death penalty is the ultimate punishment for a criminal act. Usually when someone has done something so henious we deem the sentence of death appropriate to set the scale of justice back into the right again. But is is effective? Studies have shown that the states that have the death penalty dont always have the lowest crimes rates-so does the death penalty actually deter crime? No not really. Why? Most crimes are crimes of passion(spur of the moment) and within a split second you have committed a crime. You're not going to stop and think about the consequences in a moment of passion & high emotions. Second there are 3 things the prison system needs to have to be effective: 1. swiftness-the reason this fails is because of the backlog in the courts. Often time those on death row sit in jails for years before being executed. 2. Certainity-As we have seen in the recent years DNA has proven a number of inmates on death row/in prison to be innnocent of those crimes they were charged with. Also even up to the point of execution the governor may pardon the prisoner. 3. Severe- Although death & life imprisonment are sereve they are often times not enough to balance out the loss of life or the damage done to the victim.

On paper the death penalty looks good, it looks effective. But in practicality and in practice it doesnt hold up. Yet personally I cannot look at a seriel killer and think that justice is being done simply by life imprisonment.

Answer 2

You have received some very good fact based answers already. The death penalty system is extremely flawed and more people are recognizing the specific problems. Here, in brief, is a summary of them, and about the alternative, all verifiable and sourced-

The death penalty costs much more than life in prison.

The death penalty risks executing innocent people (123 already exonerated), DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides and speeding up the process will likely guarantee the execution of an innocent person.

The death penalty is not a deterrent. Most killers do not even think they will be caught (if they think at all)

Life without parole is now on the books in 48 states. It means what it says. Supermax prisons are terrible places to spend the rest of your life.

The death penalty can be very hard on families of murder victims.

The death penalty does not apply to the worst of the worst. It applies to defendants with the worst lawyers.

48% of Americans prefer life without parole and 47% prefer the death penalty. We are learning. Eye for an eye judgments may sound good but they do not make sense.

Answer 3

The death penalty have been given to many harmless human beings (part of the clarification it takes years is via the fact we attempt yet are no longer effectual at being valuable there is not any doubt of guilt). i think that's carefully unacceptable to have a penalty like this that may ever get carry of wrongly because there is not any thank you to treatment it afterwards. The death penalty does not deter, in certainty there is reason to think of that's purely the different The death penalty is of questionable morality and that i in my opinion sense that it lowers us to the point of the criminal and validates the crime The death penalty is a lot extra high priced than existence imprisonment The death penalty very very nearly consistently is utilized inconsistently -- race, practise, type, wealth all dramatically impact the probability of having or no longer getting it. unfavorable, uneducated, mentally ill, low intelligence, and human beings of color are lots lots extra probable to get this penalty and others to flee it for same crimes. the U. S., Russia, and China are the only substantial countries or superior countries that have the death penalty.

Answer 4

in a world where a perfect justice system existed - one where the law was blind to the amount of money that a person had to spend in their defense - the death penalty would be a just and logical punishment to the most heinous crimes.

sadly, that is not the world we live in.

for instance, i learned last week that whe then governor bush was reviewing cases on death row, he and alberto gonzalez would allow exactly 20 minutes to review each case. gonzalez would leave out mitigating circumstances that any one of us would balk at - things as obvious as the defense lawyer falling asleep in court.

as long as dunderheads like this hold the power, the power of life and death should not be among them...

Answer 5

Some sociopaths cannot be helped with counciling and medication. For instance Bundy, Richard Speck and other serial killers. Many stay on Death Row for years in appeals. If there is conclusive evidence of innocence they should be immediately released and compensated. Some are without a doubt guilty as Hell and deserve what they gave their victims. If they loved life so much and gve their victim no mercy, how can they expect any?

Answer 6

Bad... justice is not perfect. We still see DNA proving that the wrong person was in jail, and there have been prisoners executed whom have been proven innocent(too late). Killing prisoners makes the state as bad as the convict/killer. We should quit killing and commute death sentences to life w/out parole...since we are NOT perfect.

Answer 7

some people want to argue the vaule/lack of value as a deterent in the death penalty argument.

I look at it from a repeat-offender point of view. A very high percentage of murderers will be repeat offenders. If we put them to death, that one murderer at the least will not do it again.

Answer 8

the death penalty is bad for many many reasons but the most important one is we do NOT hav the choice to decide who gets to liv, only god does. plus wut does killing them do? wow one second of pain, then wut, theyre dead. putting them in jail for will cause them more trauma.

Answer 9

My theory is, if you execute a killer for killing, who executes the executioner for killing the killer?

Answer 10

Great - zero recitivism.