Why do so many of you support the death penalty unthinkingly?

Question

Are you able to feel? Hardness is not becoming in anyone!

Answer 1

I am against the death penalty. State sanctioned murder is still murder. It is funny in a sad sort of way that many pro-lifers are also proponents of the death penalty. Killing is wrong period. The fact that mistakes happen in the justice system should also be enough of a reason to abolish death penalty.

Answer 2

You ask the question as if you might get the death penalty for speeding or carjacking. The death penalty in Ohio can only be given for pre-meditated murder. A death in flight from committing a Felony is considered pre-meditated. Since the discovery of DNA evidence it becomes highly unlikely of a wrong identity. It did happen before DNA. The death penalty as far as I can remember in Ohio has not been given out for a single murder (except in the death of a police officer), so they have killed in mass or over time. This would give a lot more evidence upon conviction. I believe you would be hard pressed to show a wrongful imprisonment case in the last 15 years that involved the death penalty.

Answer 3

Many people support the death penalty because they fear that killers will be released into their communities or because they are not aware of the problems with the system. The best thing that death penalty opponents can do is help educate rather than accuse. According to a Gallup Poll, in 2006, 47% of all Americans prefer capital punishment while 48% prefer life without parole. Americans are learning about the system and are making up our minds based on facts, not eye for an eye sound bites. Here are answers to some questions often asked about it. The sources are listed below.

What about the risk of executing innocent people?
124 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. To be a deterrent a punishment must be sure and swift. The death penalty is neither. Homicide rates are higher in states that have it than in states that do not.

So, what are the alternatives?
Life without parole is now on the books in 48 states. It means what it says. It is sure and swift and rarely appealed. Life without parole is less expensive than the death penalty.

But isn't the death penalty cheaper than keeping criminals in prison?
The death penalty costs much more than life in prison. Extra costs include those due to the complicated nature of both the pre trial investigation and of the trials (involving 2 separate stages, mandated by the Supreme Court) in death penalty cases and subsequent appeals. There are more cost effective ways to prevent and control crime.

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 124 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.

Note to Randy R: Here are names of people sentenced to death, whose wrongfully conviction occurred within the last 15 years:
Joaquin Jose Martinez,
Thomas Kimbell, Jr
Larry Osborne
Lemuel Prion
Wesley Quick
Alan Gell
Dan L. Bright
Ryan Matthews
John Ballard
Christopher McCrimmon
Randall Padgett
Shareef Cousin
Alfred Rivera
Joseph Nahume Green
William Nieves
Gary Drinkard
Ray Krone

Answer 4

Who says people who support the death penalty don't think?

I think it's possible for a person to forfeit their own life through their actions.

I think justice sometimes requires that the criminal dies too.

I feel that this life is temporary anyway, it's not like the criminals were going to live forever.

I feel that some people just don't have the guts to make the hard call and destroy somebody that truly needs destroying.

I feel like my tax dollars shouldn't be spent to keep rapists/child molestors/murderers alive indefinitely when bullets are so darned cheap.

I think God can sort them out faster and more economically than we can.

Answer 5

It is not unthinking to support the death penalty. What you may wish to think about is how people hurt others and what death really is.
If you are sentenced to die. Then you will wait a period of time before your life is extinguished. Months, years, decades maybe.

A life sentence is a death sentence. It can just take 50-60 years before it is carried out.

Answer 6

Why do you assume it is unthinkingly? Did it ever occur to you that maybe someone has a difference of opinion and that is why we live in America? It's okay that you are against it, but it is not okay to generalize about people who are for it.

Answer 7

Hi, thank you for having a brain and human decency. I used to support the death penalty, then realized it only appeals to the very worst human instinct--blood lust. You cannot appeal to evil in people without encouraging it. Logically, if killing people is wrong, don't kill people. Its pretty simple! Plus all the innocent people discovered on Illinois' death row--30 % proved innocent of the crimes they were convicted and sentenced for--that is a totally, absolutely outrageously unacceptable failure rate. No one should favor the death penalty because of the strong chance of shedding innocent blood, which is on the hands of--the moral responsibility of--the people who screamed for the death of the innocent.

Answer 8

that is a very good question. i personally don't support any sort of death penalty, no matter what the person did. people can be brutal without giving it too much thought. (the romans being the best example)
just because someone made a mistake, or was misled by someone else doesn't mean that they are a bad person and deserve to die.

Answer 9

So I suppose you think that people like John Wayne Gacy, who killed 33 males between the ages of 9 and 20, should still be alive and well today?

What if one of those victims had been your little brother? I bet you'd change your mind.

Answer 10

Nice that you care about murderers and not their victims. I don't support lethal injection; I support bring back the Circus Maximus and burning at the stake.