Can you make sense of this?

Question

The American (United States Justice System) Vs. Canadian. Why is that the American's have the death penalty, more people on death row, many people in prisons across the nations. Whereas in Canada, the violence rate is much more lower, no death penalty, no death row. And the intensity of crimes is much higher?? Example, A few have gone out and killed there pregnant wives, and now they are being lined up to be executioned. How does this make sense??

Answer 1

The death penalty is not a deterrant, No one would when they are enraged say Oh I 'd better not do that they might kill me. Some people think it makes them feel better to kill another person but I don't know if it really helps. 2 wrongs don't make a right, if you are a Christian it shouldn't even be a question, the commandment is Thou shalt not kill.

Answer 2

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.

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.

Question for Jim: Can you cite an example where someone serving life without parole committed murder while in prison?

Answer 3

Well, the death penalty argument goes back many decades and the death penalty is not a deterrent. The death penalty executes someone who has committed heinous crimes. These people have no place in society and should be removed from society.

Life without the possibility of parole is a ridiculous sentence. Those with that sentence have nothing to loose and will kill other inmates for multitudes of reasons or for no reason at all.

Knowing that they will have no harsher sentence than living the rest of their life incarcerated with free lodging, medical treatment, recreation, educational opportunities etc. provides little deterrent to try to escape, possibly injuring or killing others in the process and if successful, will become a threat to society once again.

I believe those who commit heinous crimes should be sentenced to death and should be afforded sufficient time on death row to facilitate all their legal reviews and options and appeals. Once those are exhausted, the execution needs to take place.

For Mike F. - The commandment in the original Hebrew text is "Thou shall not murder". There's a big difference between kill and murder and if you read your Bible, Torah, Tenak or whatever text your are getting your commandments out of, you'll clearly see that God was clearly in favor of capital punishment and used it quite often.

Answer 4

America has a more violent culture than Canada. Pure and simple. There are states without the death penalty and they have similar crime rates as those without the death penalty. The "violence rate" has little to do with the "death penalty" at all.

Would the death penalty deter me from a crime? You betcha. Are there enough people being executed to impact national statistics? Not really.