Death Penalty

[Jessica.C]

What are your thoughts on the death penalty? Are you for it, or against it?

I am against it. Yes, I understand some people deserve it, and sometimes I feel so sickened by what someone did (like murdering a lot of people, or murdering children), so I think that this killer deserves to die, but do we teach others killing is wrong by killing killers? Death is too easy of a way out for them, I think.

The US legalizes the death penalty, but crime rates are not lower. on the other hand, the UK does not have it, but crime rates ARE lower.

[kinley3]

I'm going to say that I support the death penalty. To my line of thinking, it may not necessarily be a deterrent, or the setting of an example, to others. If I may make an unqualified statement, I'm fairly certain that studies have shown that capital punishment cannot be shown to be a deterrent to murder. My apologies for not putting in the time to actually find a source for such information. However, I do believe that in some extreme cases it is a warranted form of justice. It seems to me that many people fail to distinguish the difference between deterrence and justice. What is just may not deter, and vice versa.

I understand the fact that, means must be used to make people reconsider breaking the law. But to me, justice is the more important concept. I can't understand using the death of one person in the case of an isolated incident to set a precedent for another such isolated incident. I could probably go on and on, but I'll save you the trouble of having to read such mindless drivel. You know where I stand, and that's sufficient unless any questions may arise.

[khopcraft77]

No person or group has the right to take a life. A criminal is still a living being and should be treated as such (to a much lesser extent of course).

[kinley3]

I think when you start distinguishing between classes of human, you're starting down a slippery slope. Does this simply end with criminals, or do you make this distinction for all groups of people? I just think that way of thinking can be very dangerous.

[Darkmere]

I am for it .. I say eye for an eye, if you take a life then you deserve to lose yours (respectively, not saying people who self defend themselves but the unlawful taking of a life). I personally wish they would cut peoples hands off for stealing too.

[descalzo]

Philosophically, I do not have a problem with the death penalty. If your crime is heinous enough, society should have the right to exact a high price. But then, one could argue that life in prison is more punishment than execution.

Practically, I do have a problem with the death penalty. In my state, there are about 1500 murders a year. Less than one execution. Even in Texas, which had 1328 murders and 24 executions in 2009, it works out to 1 execution for every 55 murders. Is that justice, or is it a lottery?

[Jessica.C]

I am for it .. I say eye for an eye, if you take a life then you deserve to lose yours (respectively, not saying people who self defend themselves but the unlawful taking of a life). I personally wish they would cut peoples hands off for stealing too.

what if the killer is mentally ill? Shows remorse?

[f1.p183]

I'm totally against the death penalty. I don't have any statistics with me while I write this but just look at the sorts of people that end up in prison and find themselves in this predicament. They do not reflect a random cross section of society as a whole. They tend to comprise of specific groups and classes of people, in specific sections of society.

A country that sends endless numbers of human beings to their death I think is more a reflection of their sick society than inherent badness in the individuals concerned. It's easy to label people as evil, or wicked (something that the tabloid press love to do) because it sells newspapers, but what it never does is address the underlying causes of the persons actions.

I'm certainly not saying we should ignore what these people have done but until the underlying causes of violence and crime are dealt with violence and crime will continue.
No disrespect to any of the people here politely posting an argument in favour of the penalty but I believe many people's arguments stem more from an inner need to make themselves feel better about themselves by contrasting there own perceived goodness with a distorted perception of others and by ignoring the injustice, corruption, inequality and social problems that are factors that contribute to crime and violence in the first place.

[stpvoice]

My view on this is relatively straight forward. I believe that killing someone for a crime is allowing them to "take the easy way out". They should be forced to live their life in prison having to consider what they did every day of their life. That is true punishment. My reasoning is not humane. Some may argue that killing someone for committing a serious crime is a form of "revenge". After all, an eye for an eye and all that.
I don't believe death is necessary to bring justice. The mental pain of having to live with oneself because of a crime would likely far outweigh the short physical pain of death, especially now due to the method(s) used.

[kinley3]

My view on this is relatively straight forward. I believe that killing someone for a crime is allowing them to "take the easy way out". They should be forced to live their life in prison having to consider what they did every day of their life. That is true punishment.

In this day and time, we do not have the resources to simply put people in jail for life. It costs almost $23,000 per inmate per year as far as operating costs and care.[1] And there are over two million people in either jail or prison in the US.[2] While your goal is laudable, I just don't think it's a reasonable expectation. To be truthful, we have the most people in jail of any developed Western state, and we should actually be trying to figure out how to keep people out of jail as opposed to sending more to rot away.

In a time where fiscal responsibility and the federal debt are prime issues to everyone, I think jails and prisons have to be put on the table. Sorry to have gotten a little carried away, I don't mean to make this post about non-violent crimes or anything that wouldn't warrant the death penalty. I simply wish to make the point that prisons and jails hold too many people as of right now, and sending more people there will just cost more money that we don't have.