The death penalty do you believe in it or do you not.?

Question

I do not believe in the death penalty only JESUS has the right to say who is commend and who is not.YES I BELIEVE MURDER SHOULD BE A LIFE SENTENCE.So that innonce[Spelling?]people will not get hurt by that person again.But killing a person is wrong no matter what we are to forgive people their sins against us so that Jesus will forgive us our sins.We are also to protect the innonce people.That is why I believe in life sentence and the laws that our free nations have.

Answer 1

Ah, if only more Christians were like you. Does not your Bible contain quite a few passages on forgiveness, not judging others, and, oh, I don't know, NOT KILLING PEOPLE? What if the accused is innocent? Who has the right to decide who lives and who dies?

Answer 2

Apart from religious concerns, the death penalty system is full of practical problems. Here are answers to questions about the practical aspects of the system and alternatives, with sources listed below.

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 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

Society has misconstrued the function of execution as a consequence for a criminal offense. It was never intended to be about vengeance or justice, but rather the safety and integrity of society. The theory is we execute only those criminals whose behaviors are so wicked and immoral that they would irreparably corrupt even the prison environment, and execution is the only means left we have of disposing of them. Unfortunately this is no longer how it is used.

How many times, when people find out that they are sentenced to be executed, does the family of the victim say, "Justice was served," or, "He got what he deserved"? These people are maliciously ignorant as to why we have execution in the first place.

The taking of another human life, even in Biblical times, was a solemn event. The decision to take that life was not based on seeking revenge or reciprocity upon the offender; rather it was the only means that society had available to permanently remove the impact and influence of that person on the populace. The people were executed not because of their wrongs, so much as they were because the societies of old could not allow the populace to think for a moment that certain behaviors were at all acceptable.

Even in Biblical warfare, particularly the conquest of Canaan at the end of the Exodus, the killing was not done out of any specific wrong done by any of the groups populating the land; it was done to completely erradicate all traces of the idolatry and foreign religions, so they would never be able to creep their way into and ultimately corrupt the Israelites' faith.

To be honest I can't wholly say what the proper application is for society today. I do know that in the United States, ultimately it costs just as much to execute a criminal than it does to incarcerate them for 40+ years. So merely from a business standpoint the death sentence is a bad idea.

Answer 4

Here are two points about the death penalty besides the religious arguments
1: It actually costs less to lock up a killer than execute them.
2: If you make a mistake you can not release an apologise to a mistakenly executed innocent man, but you can at least still say sorry to a prisoner.

Note that mistakes do happen in the justice systems everywhere, and innocent people get convicted of capital crimes more often than anybody wants to admit.

Answer 5

'An eye for an eye and soon the whole world is blind'
'Father forgive them because they don't know what they are doing'
'Love thy enemies'

And on the practical side, evidence shows that the death penalty does not stop people murdering because:

Most murder is not premeditated in the sense that the murderer calculates the outcome

Most murderers are known to the victim

if the murderer does calculate the outcome - it usually has a happy ending - for them.....

Basically it is just a way of saving money -0 and it isn't very good at that

Answer 6

This is a real difficult question. If you read the bible there are a lot of wars and killing. Read Ecclesiastes chapter 3. I believe in capital punishment when there is evidence that there is no doubt that the person committed murder. I also believe it is the condemn person has a chance to ask for forgiveness for his sins.

Answer 7

Too many people have misunderstood Jesus's stand on the death penalty. Jesus does not condemn society for killing murderers, rapists and kidnappers. In fact it was Jesus who started the death penalty law in the Old Testament.

Answer 8

The first answerer who used that as a means for his answer is misinformed. The old testament preached an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth...but the new testament says turn the other cheek. We aren't supposed to be living by the old testament. Pull something up from the new testament, the one we should be living by.

Answer 9

Killing in cold blood is the same regardless of who does it, or how one "justifies" it, so I am against the death "penalty." As an atheist, I see no need to bring mythology into it.

Answer 10

My opinion - if someone intentionally, maliciously, and without provocation takes the life of another, then they forfeit their own.

I support the death penalty. However, I have serious reservations about the justice system in the US, which is more interested in "getting the answer we want" than "getting the answer that is true."

Prosecutors ignoring evidence that is damaging to their case, defenders seeking out technicalities to acquit someone who is guilty - these are flaws in the US justice system that need to be remedied.

Justice depends on finding the TRUTH.