Capital Punishment?

Question

Do you believe that the process of capital punishment is right or wrong? Why or Why not?

Answer 1

Right!! It dosen't really give the killer the right to live out his life because his victim didn't have that choice why should they?Their punishment should be that of fairness and equality, meaning it's only fair that they should die and equal because it's out of their will the same as the victims.

Answer 2

Optimally, capital punishment should be carried out by the victim (or witnesses) during or immediately after a crime has been committed for which lethal force would have been excused in self-defense (or defense of others). Then there is no mistake of fact (who did what), only a potential mistake of law, for which an administrative juge can be consulted without a jury in a short hearing, if necessary. When a suspect "gets away", society has an obligation to the victim and future victims to track down and exterminate the vermin as soon as possible.

Answer 3

Morally speaking, I'm rather ambivalent. What forces me to pick sides is the numbers and facts involved.

In 2000, Gov. Ryan of Illinois suspended the death penalty indefinitely. Why? Because in the history of capital punishment in Illinois, more people had been exonerated from death row via DNA evidence than had been put to death. That meant that over 50% of death row inmates had been sentenced wrongfully. Makes you wonder how many who were put to death were innocent, huh?

The bottom line: Despite whether you think capital punishment is wrong or right, it's grossly inaccurate, expensive and is no proven to deter crime. We should be suspending it everywhere until we get it right. Did you know that DNA evidence isn't even a requirement in many states?

Answer 4

to me it just depends on the severity of the crime how was the murder commited and of what age was the victim a child omg yeah give him death or better yet let the victims family do to him what he did to there family. i dont want to spend my hard earned money on some low life criminal that commited murder or anything that deals with capital punishment i work to hard and get under paid as it is as do alot of people most people die in prison waiting for the sentence to be carried out any way. also i think that he should have to relive it everyday what he did. unless you are a victim or you know someone that was a victim you might think differently but for me i do want the death penalty for the jerk that did the crime. taking someones life is just wrong so his life should be taken as well as earlier depends on the nature of the crime

Answer 5

I believe it is wrong. Anything that has the potential to send an innocent person to their death numerous times over is not effective. Besides, if it worked so well, the first execution should have been the ending of all crime not more! The state clearly has no absolute right to put its subjects to death. There are a number of incontrovertible arguments against the death penalty.

The most important one is the virtual certainty that genuinely innocent people will be executed and that there is no possible way of compensating them for this miscarriage of justice.

A second reason, that is often overlooked, is the hell the innocent family and friends of criminals must also go through in the time leading up to and during the execution and which will often cause them serious trauma for years afterwards. It is often very difficult for people to come to terms with the fact that their loved one could be guilty of a serious crime and no doubt even more difficult to come to terms with their death in this form. However strongly you may support capital punishment, two wrongs do not make one right. One cannot and should not deny the suffering of the victim's family in a murder case but the suffering of the murderer's family is surely equally valid.

There must always be the concern that the state can administer the death penalty justly, most countries have a very poor record on this. In America, a prisoner can be on death row for many years (on average 11 years {2004 figure}) awaiting the outcome of numerous appeals and their chances of escaping execution are better if they are wealthy and/or white rather than poor and/or black irrespective of the actual crimes they have committed which may have been largely forgotten by the time the final decision is taken.

It must be remembered that criminals are real people too who have life and with it the capacity to feel pain, fear and the loss of their loved ones, and all the other emotions that the rest of us are capable of feeling. It is easier to put this thought on one side when discussing the most awful multiple murderers but less so when discussing, say, an 18 year old girl convicted of drug trafficking. (Singapore hanged two girls for this crime in 1995 who were both only 18 at the time of their offences and China shot an 18 year old girl for the same offence in 1998.)

There is no such thing as a humane method of putting a person to death irrespective of what the State may claim (see later). Every form of execution causes the prisoner suffering, some methods perhaps cause less than others, but be in no doubt that being executed is a terrifying and gruesome ordeal for the criminal. What is also often overlooked is the extreme mental torture that the criminal suffers in the time leading up to the execution. How would you feel knowing that you were going to die tomorrow morning at 8.00 a.m.?

There may be a brutalising effect upon society by carrying out executions - this was apparent in this country during the 17th and 18th centuries when people turned out to enjoy the spectacle.

The death penalty is the bluntest of "blunt instruments," it removes the individual's humanity and with it any chance of rehabilitation and their giving something back to society. In the case of the worst criminals, this may be acceptable but is more questionable in the case of less awful crimes.

This is not to say people shuold not be punished for their crimes but lets mature and look past the immediate "emotional" responses we caution our children not to take.

Answer 6

I believe in capital punishment if you can be 100% sure it's the right person. There have been 20 people put to death that have now been cleared of their crime and it's too late for them. That was just a statistic from this year alone, how many people were put to death that were not guilty?

Answer 7

Capital punishment has its merits and demerits. For a crime committed, capital punishment is justified. But since capital punishment carried out is final, irreconcilable injustice is meted on any one wrongly convicted.

Answer 8

The process of capital punishment is very wrong. Here's why.

1. It's not used enough.

2. It takes too long when it is used.

Answer 9

it's Right, an eye for an eye brother.....
what's wrong is filling up this country's prisons with the filfth of society and having to pay out hard earned tax dollars spent on running them, not to mention offering thes scumbags of society a chance to earn a college degree all for doing nothing more than murdering a small child, or helpless victim. I think that lethal injections are too kind, they should all be executed the exact same way that their victims were.
NUKE EM ALL

Answer 10

i don't know how right or wrong our process is, but i absolutely agree with the concept. whenever i question the morality of killing someone for their crimes, i just imagine some horrible cases involving children.

personally, i think for crimes involving children, there should be a committee who thinks of ways to make the punishment 10 fold what the monster did to the child/children. 10 fold, people. let's get together on this one.