Are you guys against capital punishment, or for it?

Question

State your views plz. thanks

Answer 1

lets face it, governments cant even get easy things like health care, taxes, or justifying wars correct - do we really want to trust them to act fairly in a capital trial when the crown will have oodles of dosh to fight a case and the defendant is skint?

Answer 2

Definitely against. Assuming that you want facts and not just opinions, here are answers to questions about the practical aspects of the death penalty, with sources listed below.

(BTW, note to John Galt- No reputable study shows the death penalty to be a deterrent. The key is "reputable" For more about the recent, flawed studies, including links to the studies, you can visit
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=2374
What about the risk of executing innocent people?
124 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence.

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 and regions 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, largely because of the legal process. 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?
Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. 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.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=2374.

Answer 3

I was pro-death penalty for a long time, but I have changed my stance over the years, for several reasons:

1. By far the most compelling is this: Sometimes the legal system gets it wrong. Look at all the criminals who are being released after years of imprisonment because they were exonerated by DNA evidence. Unfortunately, DNA evidence is not available in most cases. No matter how rare it is, the government should not risk executing one single innocent person.

Really, that should be reason enough for most people. If you need more, read on:

2. Because of the extra expense of prosecuting a DP case and the appeals process (which is necessary - see reason #1), it costs taxpayers MUCH more to execute prisoners than to imprison them for life.

3. The deterrent effect is questionable at best. Violent crime rates are actually higher in death penalty states. This may seem counterintuitive, and there are many theories about why this is (Ted Bundy saw it as a challenge, so he chose Florida – the most active execution state at the time – to carry out his final murder spree). Personally, I think it has to do with the hypocrisy of taking a stand against murder…by killing people. The government becomes the bad parent who says, ‘do as I say, not as I do.’

4. There’s also an argument to be made that death is too good for the worst of our criminals. Let them wake up and go to bed every day of their lives in a prison cell, and think about the freedom they DON’T have, until they rot of old age. When Ted Bundy was finally arrested in 1978, he told the police officer, “I wish you had killed me.”

5. The U.S. government is supposed to be secular, but for those who invoke Christian law in this debate, you can find arguments both for AND against the death penalty in the Bible. For example, Matthew 5:38-39 insists that violence shall not beget violence. James 4:12 says that God is the only one who can take a life in the name of justice. Leviticus 19:18 warns against vengeance (which, really, is what the death penalty amounts to). In John 8:7, Jesus himself says, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Answer 4

Societal murder is a horrible anachronism in many ways but there are some crimes that are so heinous that it seems on the surface still necessary. In the USA we recognize the serious nature of this act because we have so many automatic and lengthy appeal processes in an attempt to be certain that no innocent person is executed even after they are convicted in a lengthy process that considers extenuating and mitigating circumstances in the sentencing phase. I believe that we should remove certain violent criminals from society and exile them to some remote place from which there is neither escape nor parole, totally cut off from the modern world and forget them. Let them work on a subsistence level to survive and keep the costs of their incarceration very minimal, etc.
At the same time I can imagine placing a gun against the temple of anyone that harmed one of my children and slowly with satisfaction squeezing the trigger myself (I can do this with some clarity because I have killed in war). If this is my true attitude then why should I deny someone else or society acting in place of someone else who could not do that personally to give the satisfaction of revenge? As you can tell, I, and I believe our society, are very ambivalent about this issue.
Over all I would swallow my basic instinct of an eye for an eye and accept the punishment I suggest in the first paragraph for the overall improvement of society.

Answer 5

For it! Capital punishment serves a very important role in controlling criminal behavior and in defining the value of human life. It is a powerful deterrent regardless of the nonsense many social scientists try to claim.

I cite the case of Colin Ferguson. He is the black gunman who boarded a Long Island commuter train with a nine millimeter hand gun and began shooting all the white people.

He killed 6 and wounded 19 before being tackled. At the time, capital punishment had been outlawed in New York State so Ferguson was not eligible for the death penalty. While he was in prison awaiting trial, the death penalty was reinstated in New York. Upon hearing this, Ferguson collapsed on the floor of his cell begging and crying for his life. He did not realize that since he had committed his crimes before the death penalty was reinstated he still could not face capital punishment.

Ferguson was inconsolable. No matter what anyone at the prison said to try to convince him that he could not be tried for capital murder he refused to believe them. It was only after the prosecutor was called in and told Ferguson he was not eligible for the death penalty, that he finally stopped wailing.

Now ask yourself, would this creep have commiteed those cold blooded murders if the death penalty had still been in effect? The answer is not only no but hell no! Those poor innocent men and women on their way home from work died or suffered because there was no death penalty to deter Mr. Ferguson who was so afraid of it.

Some crimes are so terrible that simple incarceration for life does not seem adequate. Just killing another person is not enough to receive capital punishment there has to be more to it than that.
.

Answer 6

I am fully against capital punishment. It is the taking of a human life without that person's consent, something that must be avoided whenever possible. In self defense, sometimes it may not be. When a criminal can be jailed, it always can be avoided.

Something that gets on my nerves is the attitude of conservatives to this issue. Euthanasia and abortion are to be outlawed, they say, but capital punishment must be preserved. Abortion is also the taking of a life without that life's consent, so it should be governed the same way c.p. would be. Euthanasia without consent is wrong, but people have the right to end their lives whenever they wish if the method in which they choose to do so is not physically harmful to others.

Answer 7

I'm been pretty back-and-forth on this issue.

When I consider everything though, I lean more toward being against it. Here are my reasons:
1) Supposedly, 1 in 7 death row inmates is innocent...So the potential innocent man being executed is a reason.

2) Life in prison without parole is a better punishment than the death penalty because to me, simply putting someone to death seems like an "easy way out"-putting them out of their misery would be almost a favor.

3) The cost. Sending someone to the gallows (or the electric chair, lethal injection, firing squad, etc.) is more costly than keeping them behind bars. It takes so many trials in court to finally send them to their execution, it's almost not worth it anymore.

Answer 8

Roughly 60% of all criminals are repeat offenders after they get out of jail. Capital punishment is the only logical, efficient, and sane method for society to protect itself. The is NO excuse to commit a crime against your fellow man, ever. "3 strikes" programs just means that there are 3 innocent victims instead of 1. A "1 strike" program would protect millions of victims.

Answer 9

I believe that some criminals deserve to die. However I am not in favor of using the Death Penalty as a "Deterrant" there is no evidence that this is true.

Particular crimes warrant it's use, but it should only be used in the most extreme circumstances, and we should not put it up on a pedestal.

Answer 10

I don't care, either way. Usually in lieu of capital punishment, the sentence is life in prison. Either way, the criminal is not returning to society.