About Capital Punishment?

Question

So, are you against it or not? Why?

I'm against it, i'm a Christian
(actually i have a lot of other reasons to be against it, but i want to see how this statement will afect the answers)

Thanks for your answers people

Paz de Cristo

Alex- who is to decide who desrves to die and who does not? You? me? the state?

princessoftheghetto07 - That, i believe, pretty much goes against what Christ said

Mike - if what you've written is truth, then why isn't the crime rate smaller in places where there is capital punishment

Airman - I like to think you are wrong, that if someone harmed me and the ones i loved, i would not have this desire for revenge in my heart. I don't know if it is the truth, i hope i never have to find out...

Answer 1

Against it. Atheist.

There are several reasons why I'm against it. A big part is that I value life.

Perhaps a bigger part is that the very worst serial killers and murderers, the most immoral and vile people who are not at all compatible with society (the ones who arguably deserve it), are usually not the ones who get executed. Most often the killer makes a deal with the prosecution for a lesser sentence, either he agrees to confess, lead them to more bodies, or whatever in exchange for their dropping of the death penalty.

However sometimes people still want their pound of flesh, so the accomplices often get sentenced to death instead, whether or not they knew it happened. Imagine you get a call from a friend who needs to be picked up in the middle of the night, but he wants to stop by these apartments for a few minutes on the way back. He goes in, comes back, and you drive him home. Later you find out that he killed people in those apartments and you wind up in trial as an accomplice. He gets life in prison because he agrees to confess and you get sentenced to death - even though you never knew it went on! This can and HAS happened, more often than most people realize.

That's another issue I have with capital punishment.

I also don't like having it as an option for the potential of abuse... if some fundamentalists christians had their way, we'd be executing homosexuals. :p


Edit: One thing I'd like to point out to Alex is that capital punishment is excessively expensive. A capital trial can easily cost more taxpayer dollars than keeping a prisoner in jail for life, and that's not even counting the high costs of the execution itself...

Edit 2:
>> "Mike - if what you've written is truth, then why isn't the crime rate smaller in places where there is capital punishment"

1) It is truth, we discussed this in my constitutional law class, and the apartment scenario was a real case.

2) To answer your question... In virtually every study, survey or examination on the subject, capital punishment has been shown to have little to no deterring effect on crime rates. Capital punishment has never significantly lowered crime rates, indeed there is some evidence to suggest that the present of capital punishment actually increases crime rates.

Answer 2

In the recent case where two convicts on parole broke into the house of a family, tied up the father, beat the mother unconscious, bound and raped the two daughters, then SET THE HOUSE ON FIRE which killed all four family members. Capital punishment? THAT is too light a sentence! I think they should be tortured for one week, increasing in intensity until they die. O.K. I know the law does not allow that. Is it possible to kill the same guy TWICE? THAT'S how much I support capital punishment.

I'm a Christian.

Answer 3

I am not against it.
Some people, do, deserve to die.
Why should I pay to keep alive, a killer who has absolutly no remorse for the crimes he's commited?
There are people who are so disturbed that they are beyond psychological help.
So, why should they be kept alive, why should tax dollars go to their life, when they will not benefit the soceity as a whole and their is always the chance of them escaping? Why shouldn't these tax dollars go to social programs that could end up helping a family?
Yeahyeah
'We teach people that killing is wrong by killing.'
It's punishment. Most people know it's wrong and fear the punishment so they don't do it. Those who aren't afraid of death, aren't afraid, and they made that desicion long before whatever crime they commited.

Answer 4

I'm a Christian and for it because although some innocent people have been killed during the course of capital punishment it is a great deterent against people who contemplate killing.

I think there are a lot of situations where someone holds a grudge against someone else and would be willing to kill them and risk spending the rest of their life in prison but are afraid to do for fear of their own life.

Answer 5

Twice I witnessed executions, both by electric chair. And never have I heard a rational reason to support the death penalty. Certainly not one that reflects the teachings of Jesus. I am, then, opposed to the death penalty, as is much of the civilized world, all of Western Europe, for example. Among the major 'developed' countries, only the USA continues this practice. I must close, I suppose, by saying that I am an atheist.

Answer 6

Yes, I am! It says in the Bible: '' An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth'!''
Although these days, I really don't see what difference it makes, on crime as a deterrent! If a person has been convicted of capital murder, do we put him to death, or do we pay for his lifelong upkeep?
Maybe if we persist, and keep putting them to death, murder will stop?
I am a Christian, as well! But I believe in an eye for an eye! So, there we are! With a delemma!

Answer 7

Yes, I am for it. If your wife and two daughters were sexually assaulted and murdered by a couple of convicts, and the convicts set the house on fire to cover up the evidence...just like that incident up in Cheshire Connecticut...you'd be for the death penalty too. What better way to have justice then to send those two convicts to Hell a little early. And, should they decide to repent and confess their sins and give their heart to Jesus...well, then they can go meet God a little early.

Answer 8

If the laws were harder on criminals then there wouldn't be so many. Personally I'm tired of paying taxes on repeat offenders that are lazy and don't want responsibility in the real word. If the laws were stricter then there would be less criminals. My cousin is one of them that I speak of. He said that he would rather be in jail and not do anything than be in society and have to make a living. Everything is free for them.... WE PAY!!

Answer 9

Against it. Atheist.

I cannot believe that Mike thinks it's ok that innocent people have died this way, because it works to deter murderers.

If Capital Punishment worked to deter people from murdering, then why, after centuries of capital punishment, do we still have murderers?

Answer 10

I am against it. It is no more right of us to take the life of a murderer than it is for a murderer to take a life.

Also, if they are alive for their natural lifespan (and permanently incarcerated) they will have to think of what they did every day. They will have to suffer through prison (while I've never been myself, I hear it isn't a good time). I think we should go a step further and force them to see pics of either their crimes or of their victims every day for the rest of their lives.

I am Gnostic . . . it's a branch of Christianity . . . it means a search for truth. I don't think my religion has anything to do with my answer though.