Your choice: life imprisonment or death penalty?

Answer 1

i would choose the death penalty, and that is why im against it. i think it is much worse to be stuck in a cell for the rest of your life then to die.

Answer 2

Life imprisonment, definitely. There are just way too many practical problems with capital punishment.

I was actually 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 3

Life without parole makes much more sense for society. Like any other system crafted by humans the death penalty system is flawed. And its worst mistakes cannot be reversed.

Here are answers to questions about the practical aspects of the death penalty and its alternative, with sources listed below. (Several previous answers are wrong about deterrence and about costs.)

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, followed by many 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 4

I'd probably take the death penalty, because it's much easier to get a good lawyer for an appeal if you're on death row. Plus, life imprisonment amounts to slavery and is worse than death.

However, I think the death penalty is immoral, so there's sort of a contradiction there...

Answer 5

Death penalty !!!!!!!!.

Not only will the society ger rid of a criminal but he will never have the opportunity to come out and commit a crime again, as it has happened soooo many times. How many innocent lives would be saved???

Also, keeping a person in jail for life is a burden on tax payers. Why would the honest and working people in this country have to pay for all the criminals needs?

Can you just imagine how many millions of dollars go to the prisons in order to buy food and clothes for those crooks? Not to mention all the other expenses?
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Answer 6

our hard earned tax dollars are spent more on people on death row than people with life imprisonment without parole.

But anyways, I think the question is what would you choose for yourself.

If life in solitary, definitely life. I find myself rather amusing.
Life in the general prison population: probably still life.
Life in the general prison population after rape or child molestation: I pick death.

Of course, I would never do anything that would warrant either of those punishments.

Edited to address someone else's quote:
>>the SAME PEOPLE ARE BACK IN WITH 9 MONTHS EVEN AFTER REHABILITATION

I would say this is more a criticism of the jail system than the people in it. People in jail are more likely to come out violent, drug addicts, and psychologically scarred than they were when they went in.

As the famous saying goes: "You can tell a great deal about a society by how they treat their prisoners."

Answer 7

Let's stop our tax spending on inmates that are the dredges of society--death penalty-- eye for an eye?? We as a society cannot afford to build anymore jails or feed anymore inmates, and what for? If you have seen any of the programs on TV about the jails--the SAME PEOPLE ARE BACK IN WITH 9 MONTHS EVEN AFTER REHABILITATION---so it doesn't work----a bad apple is a bad apple--the only way to save the bunch is to get rid of it.........the end. And let me add that I believe all pedophiles and rapists should be sterilized- the fact that they get out of jail in no time and do the same thing over and over again makes me want to vomit---what kind of society are we that we ALLOW this to happen to our children? We put our stamp of approval on this behavior everytime we vote our "leaders" what a loosely used term, into office and they allow these animals back on the streets knowing they will keep on doing the same...........they need to be neutered like a wild animal---because that's what they are--they are human mutants.

Answer 8

Depends on the nature of the offense. The man who killed 160+ people by blowing up the Federal office building in Oklahoma City was put to death, and deservedly so.

Answer 9

I think life in prison would be much much worse.
How do we know after death penalty that the person doesn't just go right up to heaven, forgiven as anybody? Or if death is just numb nothingness, the execution is over in a second and the person hardly suffers at all.

Answer 10

This is a State's Right...However in a case like the Furguson Massacre (shooting everybody on the train that was not black is a hate crime, that Dems want reserved for homophobes who kill homos) This was a NO BRAINER and since the defendant could not get death...next best thing is a roommate who will do him in. Jeffry Dahmer's roommate must have been quite a commodity and probably got transferred for a case of fine Scotch...