Lethal injection....cruel and unusual punishment??!! ha!! What is your opinion of the death penalty?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070718/ap_on_re_us/florida_executions;_ylt=Ar.QmHXBFuBg60phDZHQlT1H2ocA

support your statement pros and cons

Glad to see it's finally back in FL. Why are people so concerned with cruel and unusual punishment? The criminals didn't seem to mind when they were committing the crime.

As for this guys lawyer saying "study him", what crap!! It won't change, he is a diseased piece of human filth. These people can't be changed, they are scum. All 50 states should have the death penalty.

Serious answers please...

Answer 1

I'm against it. I could care less about cruel and unusual punishment, but I DO care about two things:

1. The fact that it is possible to execute an innocent man. Considering how many people on death row have been exhonerated by DNA evidence, I have to think that the risk of capital punishment is pretty clear. One innocent man executed is too many. You may disagree... until it is you.

2. What does it say about our country and our society when we are on the capital punishment list with countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Russia? Are we not supposed to be part of the civilized and industrial world? Statistics show that countries without the death penalty do not have more violent crime. So what is the point? Hmm... In any case, when you kill someone as a punishment for killing someone, you teach your children the "eye for an eye" rule. Sounds great... until your kid starts to use it.

p.s. I challenge anyone to find a study that really proves that capital punishment works as a deterrent. One of those things that everyone says, and can never back up with anything that wasn't done by right wing groups who knew what they were trying to say before they even did the work.

Answer 2

The death penalty is a final and unchangeable punishment, and since our system often convicts people wrongly, or sentences them unfairly, or gives someone death for the same crime someone else got life for, or the accused doesn't have proper legal counsel, I believe it should be used sparingly or not at all. There are people who deserve to die for what they did -- but when the state gets involved, like just about everything else controlled by the government, stuff goes wrong.
To answer your question about cruel and unusual punishment, we're "so concerned" about it because it's a constitutionally-protected right to not be subject to cruel AND unusual punishment (note: not "or," but "and," proving both is very hard to do). And obviously that argument didn't work, or the death penalty would be outlawed.
There are certainly ways that even a lethal injection (as opposed to a shooting squad, a public hanging, the electric chair, or the gas chamber) can be cruel and unusual. There have been cases where the person sentenced to death has been poked with 8 or 9 needles to try to find a decent vein, one guy had to have the poison routed through his neck because his arms and legs didn't have an accessible vein. Add that to the possibility of wrongful conviction, bad attorneys and poverty-stricken accused (ever seen a rich man on death row?), there's a lot of reasons to not have the death penalty.

Answer 3

First I want to thank you for this question because I argue with people all the time about this subject.

Yes lethal injection and almost any other form of death penalty is cruel and unusual. Think about it most americans die from cancer and heart disease these deaths can be deemed "usual" next would be car accidents, gun shoot wounds etc. I'm not suggesting that we put people to death using these means but our current practices violates atleast one of our two teir reqirements of cruel and unusual.

I'm personally against the death penalty but i think firing squad is the only acceptable means of putting people to death. They say lethal injection is painless which cant be confirmed nomatter how many mice or monkeys you put to sleep. Electric chair which inst used anymore is another laugher. The only people I know who have died from an electical chair are people who were sentenced to death by electric chair, unusual to say the least. Hang is probably the cruelest death out of the bunch, depending on your neck size you could hang for minutes until death if you neck doesn break.

Inconclusion death penalty is not the best way to punish people. Making them work in prison for 40 years working in the fields for pennies an hour is much better and could actually boost our economy if we used it to produce corn or something.

Answer 4

You have received some very thoughtful answers but one answer is mistaken about deterrence (the answer from gogoggirl).

The recent studies she referred to are not supported by most scholars in the field. There were problems with the way these studies were done, with the data used and more.

Unless you are a statistician or a mathematician, the studies are hard to follow.

Easiest to understand, however, is the fact that homicide rates are consistently higher in states and regions with death penalty than in those without it.

For an abstract of the recent studies, a link to them and a discussion about them, you can check out: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=1705#STATES%20WITH%20THE%20DEATH%20PENALTY%20V.%20STATES%20WITHOUT

See "Article Examines Statistical Models of Measuring Deterrence" and "Study Identifies Flaws in Recent Deterrence Research"


For state by state and nation by nation comparisons, scroll down in the same article.

Answer 5

I am opposed to the death penalty.
There have been numerous cases where the person executed was later proven innocent, but it was too late, you cant bring someone back once you have killed them.
I also understand the arguments for the death penalty, and respect those whose opinions differ with mine. People say well when there is no doubt as to who the killer was than the death penalty is OK.

I remind you that all who are sentenced to death are sentenced because a jury thought the evidence was irrefutable. Once proven not guilty, it is too late, and it happens more than we would like to admit.

Answer 6

for brutal acts of crime that display a vicious and a un-civilized nature that causes death or permanent body damage or any other Hannis crimes towards children, or any other civilized person, When the Judge raps the gavel and pronounces guilty and sentenced to death the criminal should be taken out and put to death the same day,,, and the same way that he committed the crime.............i wish our judicial system would start trying the criminals as a criminal ,rather than a treating the trial as a circus, that makes a mockery of the law .....keep the death penalty working !!!!

Answer 7

That's mighty christian of you.
So you know, ever since the death penalty has been reinstated here in Texas there haven't been any murders at all. YEAH !!
As to the number of innocent guys executed I couldn't tell you. But that's just their tough luck, too bad soo sad. Why should I care? I'm living la vida loca murder free.

Answer 8

In the Old Testament of the Bible, God told Moses to kill people for much less (if you don't believe me just look it up, it's all over the place). I think they should let the victim's family decide on how the criminal dies and the the victim's family should have the option to either pull the trigger, flip the switch, inject the cocktail, ect.
Criminals should have no rights! They didn't honor their victim's rights.

Answer 9

A justice system based on revenge instead of restitution is subject to the whims of the mob currently in power, as is he case in any democracy, direct or otherwise. Further, a "death penalty," due to its rather permanent nature, must be infallible, yet it is not, nor can it be. Also, it is blatantly hypocritical to give the greatest murderers of all (governments) the power to kill in the name of justice.

Answer 10

I'm pro Penalty ONLY in cases of clear, incontrivertible guilt. Serial killers, video of the guy shooting the clerk, etc.

But, found guilty, you die the way you killed. For instance, drown your kids because you don't want them anymore you get stuck in a tank slowly filled with water the temp of the water in the lake.