Should Capital Punishment be outlawed?

Question

The bad side to capital punishment is that innoncent people and/or people are being sentenced to death for petty situations. What is your take on the situation. Oh and by the way I am from and live in Texas where capital punishment is still the highest level of punishment.

Answer 1

Why should we keep a system of dubious value in preventing or reducing crime and which risks executing innocent people.

Risks of executing innocent people. Most people care very much about this risk..
124 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence. DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides and isn’t a guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.

The death penalty doesn't 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 don’t.

We have a good alternative. 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.

Death penalty costs. The death penalty costs much more than life in prison, mostly because of the legal process. When the death penalty is a possible sentence, extra costs start mounting up before trial, continue through the uniquely complicated trial in death penalty cases (actually 2 separate stages, one to decide if the defendant is guilty and the second to choose the sentence, mandated by the Supreme Court), and appeals.

The death penalty doesn't apply to people with money. Its not reserved for the “worst of the worst,” but for defendants with the worst lawyers. When is the last time a wealthy person was on death row, let alone executed?

The death penalty doesn't necessarily help families of murder victims. 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.

Problems with speeding 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 2

I also live in Texas, and I am against the death penalty. I was pro-capital punishment for a long time, but I have changed my stance over the years, for several reasons:

1. By far the most compelling is this: As you said, 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

Illinois has had a moratorium on capital punishment when you consider that 2000 (i think of). The governor on the time (I ignore his call now, yet then i do no longer even stay in Illinois) stated that DNA finding out had shown purely how 'imperfect' our justice device substitute into. by then actually hundreds of convicts around the country were the two given a sparkling trial or released altogether after DNA diagnosis of the particular information from their trial had cleared them. a number of those human beings were wrongly imprisoned for some years! So there hasn't been an execution in unwell. in all this time, so ultimately the figured why could they spend hundreds of thousands and thousands of dollars each 365 days to maintain separate dying row cells and the execution centers themselves while they do no longer seem to be going to execute all people? when you consider that approximately that component (2000) human beings oftentimes have been reconsidering the dying penalty. that's getting further and extra uncommon as time is going by. i think of that's on the way out as a punishment altogether.

Answer 4

I live in the UK where there is absolutely no capital punishment. Even though we have crime, it is dealt with in a humane way but sometimes people get away, for example, if someone got life over here, it would mean they would need to spend a minimum of 25 years in jail and personally I don't think 25 years is a life long punishment because the person they killed may have been the best person alive and done so much for this world but instead they had to be killed by a person who didn't even need to kill them. Overall, I don't think it should be gotten rid of but people whould be more careful as to who should deserve capital pnishment.

Answer 5

It should be outlawed. Not only because innocent people are being sentenced to death, but it simply dosn`t fit a civilized society to act the same cruel way as the criminals. Hate is for individuals not for a country. Capital punishment is not even a deterrent. If it was, why do we then have so many people killing each other.. If I was a murderer, and accidentally shoot somebody, what should prevent me from killing 10 others, the price is the same. It is also uncomfortable to know that your country, like the Nazis, is coldly working and planning how to kill its own citizens. We should outlaw it for our own sake.

Answer 6

I notice you posted no "Pro" side to capital punishment, so I guess you have already leaped to your conclusion. If there are safeguards in place, capital punishment is a way of saving innocent lives. How many times have you heard about some repeat offender being released by mistake, or due to some jail shortage who goes out and murders people? WIth capital punishment, there are no repeat offenders.

Answer 7

Innocent people are not sentenced to death for petty situations. The Death Penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst and not just for Murder; a regular Murder does not normally qualify someone for the Death Penalty. It has to have been especially heinous and/or aggravated circumstances like multiple killings or killing a child with rape and premeditation and kidnapping, etc... The Death Penalty saves society future killings of innocent people - or at least the prospect of that. Also, saves society a lot of money.

Answer 8

With any crime they should do it extensively because at any level of Punsihment innocent people are still being put behind bars. People should just stay out of the system so they won't won't be a victim for life. Capital Punishment should be made for Sexual Predators, Murders, Straight lunatics!

Answer 9

Innocent people will always be on the bad end whether it be CP or lesser. Lawyers are not in it for the truth, they are there, to win the case for their client thru their ability to sell refrigerators to eskimos. "Making them believe that they need one" So, they get the jury to believe what they tell them.
Outlaw CP, sure. Replace it with work camps may give them more fear of doing wrong.

Answer 10

Personally, if I had to make the choice between life in prison with no possibility of parole and death, I'll choose death every time and I'm a person who values life. Therefore, I don't know that capital punishment is really THE ultimate punishment particularly for people who have shown that they do not value life. IMO, capital punishment is for the families of the victims and has very little to do with punishing the criminals or acting a deterrent.