Poll: How do you feel about death penalty?

[Andre Oliva]

I consider myself for it mainly due to the injustice of having to pay taxes just so some sick scumbag can exist, live, and possibly even enjoy prison.

Some things are so inhumane and barbaric, that the offending party shouldn't be allowed to revel in his sins; Even while in prison.

 

[game-lover]

I used to be all for it. Completely.

But I think I'm leading towards against.

Maybe I've been influenced by too much TV and whatnot but even without the shows, the news comes out every once in a while about some people who have been proven innocent now thanks to new evidence after so many years. And a few of those people were dead and part of those were executed.

Just hurts my heart to think of all those innocent people.

Even when I think some hardcore bastards deserve to die.

 

[DEAD34345]

If you do a reasonable job of it, the death penalty actually costs more than life imprisonment (see: California). It's also rather more permanent, so when mistakes occur (and they will) there's nothing that can be done about it, that innocent person is dead. Finally, research has consistently failed to show that deterrence through capital punishment has any negative impact on the rate of crime whatsoever. Criminals just don't rationally weigh the potential punishment versus the potential gain like that, they usually either commit crimes entirely unplanned or else they don't expect to be caught in the first place.

I also consider it unethical, but that's the least important of my concerns.

 

[DEAD34345]

Edit - Double Post

 

[Mareon]

As far as I am concerned the heart of the question is this:
Is it ever right for a society to murder members within that society?
My answer is no.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The only reason I have for opposing it is that an innocent man might bla bla bla. But oh well. The needs of the many right? Yes?

Spoiler

I'd support death penalty in Argentina in a heartbeat. Fry those loogans.

 

[Ryotknife]

Morally, im okay with it, it removes the person as a threat to society. Even giving the person a life sentence does not remove him as a threat as prison breaks happen often in the US (remember that polar vortex a month ago? Apparently it was so cold that an escaped prisoner turned himself in to escape it) and he is still a threat to everyone inside the prison, some of which can be rehabilited.

However, it is impractical. It costs more to execute someone than to give them a life sentence. As for the whole "you might kill an innocent person" I don't agree with that. For one, an innocent person as a much better chance of being exconerated on death row than with a life sentence because their case goes under the highest scrutiny possible (which is part of the reason why the death penalty is impractical). With a life sentence, they would have the slimmest of chances of being found innocent. In all likelihood they will throw him in jail and throw away the key. Second, with the average time on death row being...what...27 years, a life and death sentence are basically one and the same.

 

[Callate]

I think society has a certain obligation to be better than its criminals. Combined with the irreversibility of accidentally executing an innocent person, statistical evidence suggesting execution isn't an effective deterrent, and the racial disparities in sentencing within my country, I'm against the death penalty.

I completely understand the desire for revenge, and the frustration with the state having to pay for the incarceration of criminals. Ideally, I think prison should work for rehabilitation of criminals rather than merely punishment, and that more money should be spent on keeping people out of prison in the first place (education, job placement, drug treatment) than on the prison system.

 

[the December King]

I was all for the death penalty, but I think I can appreciate a leniency...

As in, I'd like to be able to kill someone who murders a loved one of mine, without fear of being put to death for it. To organize a lynching to punish someone who decided to murder someone I care about.

I admit, I'm not sure where such revenge killings would end, but I do know that the killer MUST be punished.

I do not believe in reformation or repentance for murder- that is to say, they can feel sorry and try to move on all they want, that's fine, but their victims never got the choice or chance. And while some will say what's done is done, that killing the murderer won't bring the victim back, leniency also won't bring back the victim. It will also not act as a cautionary tale to such wanton disregard for life. A murderer should be punished, and a mass murderer should just be destroyed.

I guess I believe in vengeance.

Maybe someone can talk me out of it, though. I'm feeling rather bleak and angry today...

My Captcha is 'I have fallen'. Wow, you got me, Captcha...

 

[bossfight1]

For me, really, it depends on the person and the gravity of their crime; there was one guy I saw who murdered a kid, was sentenced, and actually flipped the bird at the family before being taken from the courtroom. THAT'S the kind of guy who should get the death penalty?sociopathic murderers.

There are also people who murder once, claim to be repentant, serve their time, get out, only to murder again; they should be checked, analyzed, see if they're just insane. In my eyes, it depends on how the perpetrator feels about what they did.

 

[Kingsman]

The death penalty is usually- and well should be- a last-resort measure to people who are convicted beyond any shadow of a doubt for crimes of the most atrocious nature. I have no problem with seeing a man who gunned down a police officer trying to give a simple speeding ticket AND WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA DOING IT getting the death penalty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6z8q4lOrDU
You want to try rehabilitating these fuckers? Go nuts. But while you piss years of therapy and tax dollars on trying to "rehabilitate" a man who just took away some kids' fathers or wives' husbands, I'm not going to shed a single goddamn tear as monsters like this get put in a casket with a nameless grave.

The U.S. HAS the death penalty, and in spite of having one of the largest prison systems in the world, it faces overcrowding as a constant issue. So that we can keep people like this alive. And because people believe that therapy can "cure" pedophilia or sociopathy.

Forgive me, but I don't buy that for a second. We should not be changing all of society to have tolerance for terrorists and psychopaths. It should not be about "being the better person"- it should about taking clear and constant threats from society, and removing them forever.

 

[stormeris]

I used to be pro-death penalty, but lately, i've been thinking about it.

And i don't think the government should have the right to kill someone and i would never trust my government with that.

I do feel, that prisoners with life sentence would be forced to work for their living though.
Instead of being fucking blood-sucking parasitic leeches on the tax-payers...

 

[viscomica]

I think that since it's impossible for my own country to establish the death penalty (because of a series of international treaties about human rights) that there's no point in worrying about it. That being said, criminal law is not about punishing people, contrary to popular belief. And there's no evidence that death penalty dissuades murderers and the like from committing horrific crimes (since most of them have a mental condition; statistically speaking), rendering death penalty obsolete and pointless.

 

[Kingsman]

I think that since it's impossible for my own country to establish the death penalty (because of a series of international treaties about human rights) that there's no point in worrying about it. That being said, criminal law is not about punishing people, contrary to popular belief. And there's no evidence that death penalty dissuades murderers and the like from committing horrific crimes (since most of them have a mental condition; statistically speaking), rendering death penalty obsolete and pointless.

I disagree- I think you'll find that criminals who have the death penalty rarely, if ever, commit repeat crimes.

 

[JoJo]

I think that since it's impossible for my own country to establish the death penalty (because of a series of international treaties about human rights) that there's no point in worrying about it. That being said, criminal law is not about punishing people, contrary to popular belief. And there's no evidence that death penalty dissuades murderers and the like from committing horrific crimes (since most of them have a mental condition; statistically speaking), rendering death penalty obsolete and pointless.

I disagree- I think you'll find that criminals who have the death penalty rarely, if ever, commit repeat crimes.

I think you'll find exactly the same for criminals sentenced to life in prison, minus the risk of executing innocents or the millions of extra dollars spent maintaining death penalty apparatus, death rows and appeals.

 

[TakerFoxx]

In most cases, I'm against it, except in cases of crimes of extreme cruelty in which we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we got the right guy. Take that guy, forget his name, who went to jail for raping a girl, served his sentence, got released, and almost immediately raped and murdered another girl and then called up the girl's mother to taunt her about it. People like him, who rape and murder for no other reason than their sick enjoyment and are proud of the fact, I would not shed any tears for should they get executed.

 

[viscomica]

I think that since it's impossible for my own country to establish the death penalty (because of a series of international treaties about human rights) that there's no point in worrying about it. That being said, criminal law is not about punishing people, contrary to popular belief. And there's no evidence that death penalty dissuades murderers and the like from committing horrific crimes (since most of them have a mental condition; statistically speaking), rendering death penalty obsolete and pointless.

I disagree- I think you'll find that criminals who have the death penalty rarely, if ever, commit repeat crimes.

I'd love to read studies on that. But as a law student specialized in human rights I think all humans (no matter how heinous their crimes are) deserve human rights. That being said, criminals should be condemned, obviously, but the Hammurabi code should be long past us. The "an eye for an eye" saying should no longer be a reality in modern societies.

 

[PhoenixRoss]

My problem with it is the fact that death is irreversible and humans make mistakes. People being wrongly convicted is not a rare occurrence, and the fact that they could be wrongly executed does not sit well with me.

 

[Naeras]

Even a single case of someone innocent suffering the death penalty means the system will have flat-out murdered someone. I think that'd good enough reason to write off death penalty already there.

 

[the December King]

I used to be pro-death penalty, but lately, i've been thinking about it.

And i don't think the government should have the right to kill someone and i would never trust my government with that.

I do feel, that prisoners with life sentence would be forced to work for their living though.
Instead of being fucking blood-sucking parasitic leeches on the tax-payers...

Hey, well put, Stormeris. I wish I'd seen this post before I had commented.