Death penalty support poll?

Question

I would appreciate input for my own edification about support for the death penalty.

1) Do you currently support the death penalty?

If you answered yes to #1, please answer these theoretical scenarios:

2) Theoretically, if the death penalty were to cost more than life imprisonment, would you still support capital punishment?

If yes:

3) If the death penalty also didn't deter crime, would you still support it?

If yes:

4) If it were also true that the poor and blacks were more likely to be sentenced to death than the wealthy and whites, would you still support it?

If yes, why?

Perdendosi - indeed it is unfortunate that people are claiming the hypotheticals are untrue. Particularly since they're true. It's not for a class, I'm just trying to understand if people support capital punishment because they don't know the facts of if they have legitimate reasons.

Answer 1

I am absolutely against the death penalty in all cases. cantcu posted some of the important arguments against it, and there are more. I suspect you already knew. bases on your question, that there is substantial evidence that the death penalty costs more, has no deterrent effect and is biased against the poor.

Do you also know about the problems with notoriously unreliable eyewitnesses, jailhouse snitches, mistakes and fraud by coroners and investigators and ineffective public defenders?

Ardent supporters of the death penalty need to educate themselves. How would they feel if someone they loved was wrongly convicted? It has happened hundreds of times.

Answer 2

1. Yes- Sometimes life in prison doesn't give the mourning families and those effected by murder consolation. This is the case in particularly gruesome murders or multiple murders.

2. Yes- Would you spend more money on a train if it got you to your destination faster than the less expensive, slower one?

3. Yes- Look at maximum security prisons. They are full of inmates who know they will be there for life, so they continue their streak of violence in prison. Sometimes, these felons CONTINUE to murder people while in jail. Obviously, life behind bars has not had much of a positive effect on them (as if it was supposed to).

4. Yes/No - This is basically how capital punishment works today. It NEEDS to be fixed because this type of passive racism is unacceptable.

I know my first 3 answers are a bit harsh, but they are my opinions, and I stand by them.

Answer 3

What is with the polls. They mean nothing

No, except for psychopaths!

It already does cost more money in appeals! The costs to the state of funding appeals by convicted murderers would more than pay for their permanent incarceration.

The death penalty has not been shown to be effective in the reduction of the homicide rate. There are some indications that executions actually increase the murder rate.

The mentally ill, poor, males, and racial minorities are over-represented among those executed. One pilot study of over 2 dozen convicted criminals on death row found that all had been so seriously abused during childhood that they probably all suffered from brain damage. Women convicted of murder are almost never executed; that is a penalty that is almost entirely reserved for men. A 1986 study in Georgia showed that persons who killed "whites were four times more likely to be sentenced to death than convicted killers of non-whites." 8,9,10 The Texas Civil Rights Project issued a report in 2000-SEP which was critical of the justice system in Texas. They made the following criticisms which could probably apply to most of the states in the U.S. which still execute prisoners: The defense lawyers are often incompetent. Judges sometimes appoint friends or political associates. Other times, no competent lawyer is willing to accept the case because of the poor compensation paid.
District attorney are given "unrestricted discretion" in deciding whether to seek the death penalty. Poor people, and members of minority groups are more likely to be targeted because of prejudice and bigotry.
Jurors who may support the death penalty, but have reservation about its use, are eliminated from jury duty.
Jurors are often not given the option of a life-without-parole sentence in murder cases.
The appeal process has "burdensome, if not impossible, procedures." The process seems designed to speed cases along rather than grant justice.
The rules appear to be in flux: the highest appeals court in the state reversed about one out of every three capital sentences prior to 1995. Since 1995, this has reduced to less than 3%.
The operation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles in Texas is severely flawed. They do not meet as a group to study evidence and discuss a case. Individual members are sent stacks of documents, and make their decisions via telephone or fax.

Many convicted murderers are later found innocent, and have been pardoned. It is impossible to pardon a corpse. In 1987, a study was published by the Stanford Law Review. They found some evidence that suggested that at least 350 people between 1900 and 1985 in America might have been innocent of the crime for which they were convicted, and could have been sentenced to death. 139 "were sentenced to death and as many as 23 were executed."

There go a lot of your MYTHS!

Answer 4

No.
(Too bad the people aren't answering your questions correctly; you ask them to assume that the death penalty is more costly, doesn't deter, and that it has a disparate impact on minorities, and whether that would change their mind... they're just saying that your assumptions aren't true, which isn't part of your poll. Sorry that you're not getting good results. HOpe this isn't for a statistics class! Can you say bias??)

Answer 5

I have a dilemma about that. There are some that do deserve it but there are others such as Tookie Williams that did not. If the death penalty did not deter crime I would not support it. And I do think the majority of the sentenced to death are poor or black.

Answer 6

1) Yes.

2) Yes. Cost is not the only consideration. Deterrence is another.

3) Yes. You murder someone, you deserve the same.

4) Yes. Absent a showing of prejudice, that statistic is irrelevant. Each case is determined on its own particular set of facts.

Answer 7

1. Yes
and yes to 2, 3, and 4 also.
Race in and of it self is not the issue. You don't get a pass just because you are Black.

Answer 8

Yes on all counts, however, we would need to figure out why #4 is true and determine if there needed to be changes.

Answer 9

1` Yes
2 Dont believe that
3 I believe it does
4 A crime commited that is bad enough to bring the death penalty is justified. whoever commits it..

Answer 10

1) Absolutely Yes
2) Absolutely Yes
3) Absolutely Yes
4) Absolutley Yes

The death penalty is not about race or revenge. It is about justice and safety.