What is your View on the death penalty?

Answer 1

You don't have to condone brutal crimes or want the criminals who commit them avoid a harsh punishment to ask whether the death penalty prevents or even reduces crime and whether it risks killing innocent people.

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 and can’t guarantee we won’t execute 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. When the death penalty is a possible sentence, extra costs mount up even before trial, continuing through the uniquely complicated trial (actually 2 separate trials, one to decide guilt and the second to decide the punishment) 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 2

For child murderers, yes, hang them. Take Ian Huntley, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady to name a few. The trouble is that religion also seems to interfere in the legal system and politicians are always jumping on the band wagon.

When a child murder takes place, people don't seem to want to know the details, and cannot imagine the terror of a child who is in this position. They believe that it is wrong to take a life, and as i said politicians jump on the religious bandwagon to win more votes.

If a person kills a child, they are nothing more than an animal and need to be put down. Why should the tax payer be forced to keep them. I had a pamphlet through the door a few years ago from the BNP party, and whilst i do not agree with some of the things that these people state, the one point that i did agree with was that if they were in office, they would go into all the prisons and execute the child murderers.

Does anybody also think that the yorkshire ripper should still be alive? As you have probably worked out, i am an atheist and believe that without the hippocriticle religous people, the world would definately be a better place.

Answer 3

What is the point of putting someone behind bars for life? The cost alone is astronomical! They say that the death penalty doesn't stop crime .But in fact it does! If a child molester is put to death that is the last time he will ever do it to another child. Or the case of the two guys that robbed a family raped the children then tied them to there beds, beat them with a bat and they where still alive when they set them on fire then killed the parents too ! Bleeding liberals will argue the death penalty is cruel ! In a case like this one the only problem with the death penalty is it's not cruel enough !

Answer 4

It is the best way to ensure that a true, guilty menace to society NEVER has an opportunity to do another crime.

Some people cannot be rehabilitated and the ones that are often executed are typically the ones that have no chance, although many will start praying and "finding Jesus" in desperate attempts to save themselves.

I think the death penalty should be modified so that the method of execution mirrors what the perp did to the victim. It's the closest thing to justice for the victims.

Answer 5

I support the death penalty but there are two major problems with it.

1. Is the person guilty? Look how many cases are getting over turned.

2. If you believe in God then you know the 2nd.

Answer 6

I'm against it because I think that life imprisonment is worse. Criminals get off too easily with a death sentence. If they are incarcarated for life, they have time to think about their crime. They don't get to see their spouses, friends, girlfriends/boyfriends, or children as much as they'd like to. Your freedom basically disappears when you go to prison. Life imprisonment is more serious and a better tactic to use than the death sentence. Only if someone kills a child, police officer, or multiple people should they get the needle.

Answer 7

go for it on truely violent offenders whether it be a child molestor or murderer. granted i think we should be waaaaayyyyy beyond even a small doubt that they may be innocent before we kill them. if you're wrong you can let someone out of jail you cant bring them back to life. but if they for sure did the crime fry 'em all. especially those who hurt innocent children. i do not believe prison is an effect rehab facility and so people who hurt children should never walk free again. and to prove my point on the fact that prison does rehabilitate...look at the crazy ring leader who tortured that black girl in WV she had just got of jail for mansluaghter which was reduced from murder in a plea.

Answer 8

I am on the fence on this one. I don't believe two wrongs make a right, but I also think that when someone takes a life, or does something horrible to a child and there is no obvious chance for rehabilitation, it isn't fair to expect us as taxpayers provide for this person for the rest of their lives in jail. If there is no chance for them to get out of jail, there is no reason for them to remain living.

Answer 9

there are people in this world who deserve the death penalty

Answer 10

Some folks just need killin'. Particularly whenever they catch the two POS's that did this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070917/ap_on_re_us/infant_killed_1

Some people say that the death penalty doesn't stop crime. I beg to differ. If the perpetrators are dead, they aren't going to do it again, are they?