Do you support the death sentence in your justic system?

Question

Where do you live? Do you have an active death penalty? If so, how active?

Answer 1

Yes I support it. It's an excellent deterrent and helps eliminate the scum buildup from society.

Answer 2

I do not support the death penalty because it is not an effective way to prevent or to reduce crime and because of the risk that innocent people will be executed. I live in New York where the status of the death penalty is unclear. One person on death row.

Several answers have given you misinformation about costs and deterrence. To set this straight here are answers to questions about the practical aspects of the death penalty system with sources listed below. Your question is too important for short sound bites.

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, mostly because of the legal process. Anytime the death penalty is a possible sentence, extra costs start to mount up even before a trial, continuing through the uniquely complicated trial (actually 2 separate stages, mandated by the Supreme Court) in death penalty cases, and subsequent appeals.

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.

Answer 3

I live in the U.S.A. Some of the states have the death penalty. I live in Michigan, where there is no death penalty. Some would argue that it's cruel and unusual punishment. Having the death penalty has not stop anyone from committing crimes. In my younger days I was against it. Now that I'm older I have mixed feeling about it. I wouldn't want someone that may be Innocent put to death. Yet those who are guilty spend to much time sitting in jail. Getting meals,medical care and many other rights that honest people can't afford. Yes, being in jail is no picnic it beats working for a living.

Answer 4

I live in upstate New York. 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 people who have been 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 5

No, I don't. Due to massive legal costs in appeals and extended jail time (death row is NEVER a quick process), the death penalty almost always is more costly to the taxpayers than life w/o parole.

In addition, since 1970, there have been about 120 exonerations of death-row inmates. This makes me wonder how many have been killed unjustly.

Poor defendants are much more likely to be executed than rich defendants. While this holds true for all punishments, the death penalty cannot be reversed once it has been carried out.

For these reasons, I think the death penalty should be abolished, and I'm usually rather conservative.

Answer 6

Texas is where I live & no I don't support the death penalty. It lets criminals off the hook way too easy. Plus, I think with all these crime labs coming up with faulty DNA tests & other people being found innocent that spent decades in prison, it pretty much makes a good case that the death penalty is not a good answer to crime. Assuming a death row inmate is really guilty, wouldn't his/her time be better served doing menial labor & giving any revenues to the victims &/or families/loved ones till the day they die. Actually, I'm for frontal lobotomizing the worst case sexual offenders (like pedophiles) Let them sort recyclables for the rest of their lives to pay for their room/board & give any extra to charity or the victims. I truly believe when you commit the same crime they did it only tells other deranged individuals that killing is OK. They can't make the same distinctions between one death & another death that sane people make. It just angers them that people are hypocritical & that feeds their need to harm others. Many studies have been done on this & most conclude that the death penalty does little to nothing to prevent henious crimes in our society. If it did, we wouldn't have rising crime rates. So why continue making the same mistake over & over & expect a different result. Thousands of years of "eye for an eye" has never resulted in anything but more insanity in our cultures. I'm not advocating love & forgiveness at all. Let's all become good grudgers though & make examples of these people. Make them wish they had that blessed relief instead of facing endless days of lonliness & mindless toiling for no reward. Maybe then word would get around that there is no easy out. After all, psychologists say most of these people have a death wish anyway even if it's merely subconcious. They knew darn well what was at the end of the road for them if they committed horrible crimes. Just like overeating, smoking, drug/alcohol addictions... and any other manner of slow suicide... psychopaths don't value their own lives. So you aren't actually punishing them if you are merely giving them a peaceful ending to something they hated to begin with... their own life. (Great question, hope you get some good answers)

Edit: There's no reason to pay a single dime for these criminals in prison. Just set them to work recycling all our garbage straight out of the landfills if needed. There's no reason they can't be forced to do menial labor to pay for their own prison terms. There are endless amounts of mindless menial labor that needs to be done in our society. Anyone who really thinks it costs more to keep a man in prison than it costs to hunt him down, repair the damage he does in society & then give him a fair trial, you need to buy a new calculator.

Answer 7

Yes I do support the death penalty. I live in Arkansas, U.S.A. We do have lethal injection. Our state occasionally puts someone to death, maybe once or twice a year?? I would rather see people that are convicted of capitol murder ( first degree ) with extenuating circumstances such as torture, rape or any other heinous act, be worked at hard labor or even tortured to death the same way that their victim was!!!! By the way I am THE ALL AMERICAN!!!!

Answer 8

I live in Michigan and we do not have the death sentence but I wish we did.
For certain crimes this is the only way of being sure that the same crime will not be comitted again by the same person sooner or later.
It is also a deterrent and why keep the prisons full of people who have taken a life or taken the innocence of small children

Answer 9

No, i dont support it. Our death penalty is there but people rarely get executed though there are many on death row. I think that we are lowering ourselves to their level if we become murderers too. Plus it costs a lot of money to give someone the death penalty, they have calculated it would cost more than keeping them for a life sentence! PLUS an amazingly high amount...like one in seven that are on death row are later proven innocent by dna and other tests. Not worth risking even ONE innocent life.

Answer 10

Controversial question. With positive DNA test results that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone was a murderer, took another life in cold blood, and it was premeditated then yes I support the death sentence.
I believe there are those born without consience and feel no remorse for their horrible actions. Not true human beings as we define them. And my tax dollars spent supporting them in prison for the rest of their lives is a waste.

Answer 11

I live in the state of Washington, in the U.S.A. We do have an active death penalty in this state, but I haven't heard of more than one person actually being put to death in the past decade. I am a Catholic (converted) but I stopped believing in the death penalty before I made my conversion. I read a book by an ex-FBI man that said if we put to death the people who kill 'serially' we can't have them to study ... that started me thinking about it. Which would be worse for them? To have to live until they died of old age in a prison, or to be 'released' ... whether there is an afterlife or not. I think that they should be kept in prison until they die a 'natural death' and should even be 'protected' both medically and physically, so they can't kill themselves. Many in prison claim to have 'come to Christ' ... I have my doubts about that when that gets them out on parole ... but I do think that even the very worst of us deserve as much chance as any of the best of us to 'see the error of our ways' and make penance to God.