"Should the U.S. continue to use capital punishment?”?

Question

What is your out take on this question?

Answer 1

The more I learn about the death penalty, the more I oppose it.

I see two major arguments made for the death penalty: Revenge and deterrence. I’ll address each one separately and then add some additional points below.

Revenge:
The criminal justice system is supposed to be about justice, not revenge. If we execute a criminal out of revenge, we are no better than the criminal. As part of this, people often say that it will give the families of the victim relief or closure. I have seen nothing that leads me to believe this is the case. Conversely, I have seen in many instances where the families expressed remorse and sadness due to the execution.

Deterrence:
The fact is, the death penalty does not work as a deterrence to crime. The Death Penalty Information Center fact sheet located at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf states in part:

· “According to a survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies, 84% of these experts rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. (Radelet & Akers, 1996)”

· “Consistent with previous years, the 2004 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that the South had the highest murder rate. The South accounts for over 80% of executions. The Northeast, which has less than 1% of all executions, again had the lowest murder rate.”

Other Issues:
Permanence – The death penalty once applied is permanent. This would not be a big deal I suppose if we could guarantee that an innocent person never would be executed. However this is just not the case. If you spend any time on the website http://www.innocenceproject.org/ you will see 205 people that were cleared because of DNA evidence. These people spent sometimes 20 years in jail, many on death row for a crime that it was later proved they did not commit. I have always believed “better that a guilt man goes free than to impression or execute an innocent man”. Some people fervently disagree with that statement. I expect the story would change if they were the innocent one.

Costs – Many people believe that executing criminals is less expensive than keeping them in prison for life. Again this is simply not the case. There are two factors that drive up the cost of death penalty cases, the mandatory and automatic appeal process that is built in to ensure the death penalty is fair and appropriate in the case and the additional cost of maintaining a “death row”. The Death Penalty Information Center fact sheet states in part:

· “The California death penalty system costs taxpayers $114 million per year beyond the costs of keeping convicts locked up for life.”

· “In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. (Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992).”

Racism – There is an imbalance in how and when the death penalty is sought. Additionally, it appears to me that the death penalty is used in a disproportionate number of cases involving minorities particularly blacks. The Death Penalty Information Center fact sheet contains a great analysis of race and the death penalty.

In conclusion, I feel it is time to end the death penalty as I believe it does not serve the interest of justice.

Answer 2

The appropriate court docket has desperate that it is not cruel or unusual.. Blacks commit a proportionately some distance extra effective style of crimes than white. ALL accused of homicide are entitled to a Public Defender at no fee. it is egalitarian. fee isn't the subject. the subject is justice. Are you saying that the lives of those murdered ought to be bartered for at a good deal value? it somewhat is the two real the responsible every person is launched, and lots probably with the aid of criminal technicalities and prosecutorial ineptitude. Capital punishment isn't approximately deterrence. it somewhat is society's technique of preserving persons acccountable for their crimes and punishing them. Your opinion that capital punishment would desire to be"rejected in all circumstances" is purely that, an opinion. BTW: Why no longer ask this question in pink China or Russia, the place the trials are rapid, and the convicts get a bullet in the returned of the top? Your FLAG is displaying. Edit: I hear the familiar libbie emotional hand wringing, clarification, and opinion. enable somebody you comprehend be raped and murdered by using the likes of somebody which includes Lovelle Mixon and you will sing a distinctive music. humorous the way you so cavalierly brushed off the mass homicide of tens of millions by using your commie leaders. You forgot that murdering thug Castro. and is not any longer it purely like a libbie to desire to DO THE CRIME yet no longer desire to DO THE TIME. no longer executing murderers is a left exceeded way of condoning homicide. If it somewhat is the commie way, save IT.

Answer 3

No. The death penalty does not prevent or reduce crime and it risks executions of innocent people. The death penalty is not an effective way to prevent or to reduce crime and it risks executions of innocent people.

The second answer you received is absolutely correct on the facts. Several other people who answered after him are mistaken on some of the facts.

Here are some specifics the second answer left out.

124 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence.

DNA doesn't keep new cases like these from happening. It is available in less than 10% of all homicides. It is not a guarantee against the execution of innocent people.

No reputable (reputable is the key word) has shown the death penalty acts as a deterrent. In fact homicide rates are higher in states and regions with the death penalty than in those without it. To deter others, a punishment must be swift and sure. The death penalty is neither. 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.

The death penalty isn’t reserved for the “worst of the worst,” but rather for defendants with the worst lawyers.

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 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 since it does not bring back life.

Sometimes the people that were killed behaved in a manner that to a lot of people would consider evil, but the law did not see it that way.

Example: Women that were beaten by their husbands that had to kill them or be killed. At one time women were NOT protected by abusive husbands and there are t-shirts glorified as "Wife Beaters"

When a loved one's life is taken hate and anger are mostly normal reaction and the desire for revenge is high on most people's agenda i.e. the death penalty.

Technology has improved but NOT human emotions.

Answer 6

Only if the court has irrefutable videotape of the crime should anyone ever be put to death! What ever happened to life at hard labor? Making someone work is like putting them in hell, that's my opinion on that subject! Working your behind off at gunpoint and a whip is a far better punishment than death! Air conditioning and cable TV are hardly punishment!

Answer 7

Yes. Capital punishment has it's detractors, but you can't argue with the recidivism rate. Frankly, any crime that currently carries a life sentence should be opened up to capital punishment. Life in prison is every bit as 'cruel' as death.

Answer 8

Yes, but the method of execution should be simpler and take less time and money. Like a shotgun to the head or something. Or give the prisoner an option between suicide, shotgun to the head, or gladiatorial combat.

The funds you would save on stupid things like lethal injection and death row could be used to actually rehabilitate other prisoners.

Answer 9

No, next question. ;-)

The rest of the Western world doesn't use Capital Punishment. Only countries we normally associate with the "Axis of Evil" use the death penalty.

Answer 10

No. Capital punishment is much more creepy than some psycho nut just killing someone. Systematic government murder is just outrageous and weird and scary as hell.