i would try to write my own reasons, but these sum it up pretty well. if there is a 0.00000000000000001% chance that an innocent person is going to be put to death, the odds should not be taken.JoJo said:I oppose the death penalty on three grounds:
1) There is always a risk of innocents being executed, unlike a prison sentence an execution cannot be undone and the wrongly executed cannot be compensated. Even DNA evidence is not 100% solid gold reliable and juries have been misled in the past by 'experts' who exaggerated the probability of DNA belonging to the accused.
2) I don't feel comfortable giving the government, with their track record for reliability, the power of life and death over citizens who aren't an immediate threat to anyone.
3) When all the safeguards, appeals, special equipment and death row costs are taken into account, the death penalty is actually more expensive than simply jailing the prisoners for life. When cuts are being made to healthcare, education, pensions etc, why waste money on this?
I disagree- I think you'll find that criminals who have the death penalty rarely, if ever, commit repeat crimes.viscomica said: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 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.Kingsman said:I disagree- I think you'll find that criminals who have the death penalty rarely, if ever, commit repeat crimes.viscomica said: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.