Proposal for a new reality show: Capital Punishment in America?

Question

I think we should record and then televise every execution in America. We can have a snazy commentator, like on Cops, explain the crime they were convicted. Then we can do a pre-execution interview with the condemned. Then we'll do a closeup of the entire process by which the condemned is made to pay for their crime.

Then we'll find out if Americans are really so enamoured of capital punishment or not. Heck...the show would be cheap and it might really rock in the ratings. Or we'll be sickened by the whole process and end this barbaric practice.

Answer 1

Interesting idea. Did you know that in the lethal injection procedure, the second drug (which paralyzes the condemned man) is used mostly to spare witnesses the spectacle of the condemned person twitching or moaning in agony when the third drug kicks in.

Here are a few questions that people ask about the death penalty system with answers and the sources for them (listed below.)

What about the risk of executing innocent people?
Over 120 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence, many having already served over 2 decades on death row.

Doesn't DNA keep new cases like these from happening?
DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides. It is not a guarantee against the execution of innocent people.

Doesn't the death penalty prevent others from committing murder?
No reputable study shows the death penalty to be a deterrent. Homicide rates are higher in states that have it than in states that do not. Most killers don't think about the consequences anyway. They do not think they will be caught (if they think at all. To serve as a deterrent, a punishment must be swift and sure. The death penalty is neither.

So, what are the alternatives?
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. Life without parole is less expensive than the death penalty. Life without parole is swift, sure and rarely appealed.

What about the very worst crimes?
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??

Doesn't the death penalty help families of murder victims?
Not necessarily. Murder victim family members across the country argue that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

So, why don't we speed up the process?
Many of the 123 innocent people released from death row had already been there for over 2 decades. If the process is speeded up we are sure to execute an innocent person.

But don’t Americans prefer the death penalty as the most serious punishment?
Not any more. People are rethinking their views, given the facts and the records on innocent people sentenced to death. According to a Gallup Poll, in 2006, 47% of all Americans prefer capital punishment while 48% prefer life without parole.

Answer 2

I supported capital punishment for an prolonged time, however the greater I discovered approximately it, the greater I got here to oppose it. interior the top, various factors replaced my techniques: - errors take place. because 1973 interior the U.S., over one hundred forty human beings have been released from dying row with information of their innocence. those are all people who were chanced directly to blame "previous a functional doubt." A existence sentence is reversible. An execution isn't. - fee - because of the criminal equipment designed to decrease wrongful executions (and the super fee of keeping dying row centers), it expenses taxpayers lots greater to execute somebody than to imprison them for existence. - this is not a deterrent - violent crime fees are continuously bigger in dying penalty jurisdictions. - it is unevenly and arbitrarily utilized. - It places too lots potential interior the arms of the government. - because of the fact the U.S. is between the final last countries with capital punishment, many different countries refuse to extradite popular criminals who ought to be status trial right here. - It fosters a subculture of violence by employing keeping that killing is a suitable answer to a topic. - Jesus exchange into against it (see Matthew 5:7 & 5:38-39, James 4:12, Romans 12:17-21, John 8:7, and James a million:20). - existence without parole (LWOP) is on the books in maximum states now (all different than Alaska), and it ability what it says. people who get this sentence are taken off the streets. For good. - As Voltaire as quickly as wrote, "enable the punishments of criminals be functional. A hanged guy is physically powerful for no longer something; a guy condemned to public works nonetheless serves the rustic, and is a living lesson." - no remember in case you’re a hardened offender or a central authority representing the human beings, killing an unarmed man or woman is misguided. era. “He did it first” isn't a valid reason.

Answer 3

I have said this for years. PPV an execution with the proceeds going to the victims or the families of the victims.

Public execution is nothing new. It actually serves a purpose. Seeing someone die from execution for a crime is a deterrent to other criminals.

Public executions have played a part of our history for well over a millennium.

Answer 4

Not a good idea. Someone will go on a kill rampage to get famous for that and being executed on TV. Let's not encourage the nut bags, the voices in their heads do that enough.

Answer 5

That is a great idea. I have mixed feelings on capital punishment. I would not say that I am dead set against it, but I could not imagine being locked in a room watching a clock and waiting to die.

I am starting to lean more against it.

Answer 6

we don't have to be religious, right? It's not funny 2 c people eat werms on tv, but u can. So if yer gonna eat werms, I'd like 2 chill out first.

Answer 7

So what was the reason this was put here? This is a "statement" more for law & ethics.

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