Do you support the death penalty?

Question

I was just curious as to how many in the general public support the death penalty. If you do not, what is your reasoning and would you support it for certain crimes?

Answer 1

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

Risks of executing innocent people-
124 people on death rows have been released with proof that they were wrongfully convicted. 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.

The death penalty costs much more than life in prison, mostly because of the legal process which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people.

The death penalty isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. 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 do not support the death penalty because we, as humans, are unable to devise a method of adminstration from accusation through punishment, that is free from bias and error. The entire process, including the prosecutor's determination of who is subject to the penalty, through jury selection, trial, appeals and final infliction of the punishment is so tarnished by human frailties so as to render it unacceptable in my view.

Answer 3

I'm dont support the death penalty because I believe that two wrongs dont make a right. Killing someone is not going to make up for the fact that they killed someone else. Besides, killing someone is suppose to be against the law. The law doesnt say that you are not allowed to kill someone unless you work for the government and that person killed someone else first.

Answer 4

No. I do not support it. What if the criminal have repented? Would it not be a sin then to kill him/her when he/she can be a useful citizen?

An eye for an eye, the world turn blind. If you kill somebody and in turn be sentence to death, what is the message being send out? That it is okay to kill somebody for killing somebody? Then crime rates will not decrease at all. So what is the point of a death penalty?

Answer 5

i never have supported the death penalty it has been used not as law enforcement at all it is more seen to be political rather than to provide some justice.

Answer 6

I not only support the death penalty, but I also think crimes should carry a mandatory minimum sentance. It is sickening to see criminals "getting off easy" because they know how to work the system or are a celebrity. ie celebrity x's 4th DWI and gets 10 days in jail.

Answer 7

I generally don't. I get quite mad sometimes (usually when children are the victims) and think "Hang the bastard!"
But that is in the past. We've moved on. And I have absolutely no problem with someone being jailed for life, provided it means life. No getting out early, no soft life, no paroles, no appeals, no getting off early for good behaviour. Life must mean for your natural life.

Answer 8

If you have the death penalty and you hang someone, then find they were innocent, then you find the right person, do you hang them too. Because the first person was hanged in error is the state guilty of murder.
If the second person was then found to be innocent do we keep hanging someone until we get it right!!
There was someone in Derbyshire released after being in prison for 27 years for murder until they found out he was innocent. Should he have been hanged at the time!

Answer 9

Yep. As long as there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Dude who murdered my cousin up in Harrisburg last summer claims he didn't do it. He went over to her house with a gun and shot her in front of several witnesses. But he claims that he's being set up and that he didn't do anything. When you commit murder in front of multiple witnesses or you get caught on video, then there is no reasonable doubt. When there is solid DNA evidence to support the facts, then there is no reasonable doubt. When there is proof of obvious premeditation to back up the other evidence, then there is no reasonable doubt and person should not sit on death row for 15 years. They should be executed ASAP.

Answer 10

Not for shoplifting, of course, but when you read of the horrific crimes in this country, you start to see the need for capital punishment and understand why the Founding Fathers didn't seem to have a problem with it.