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Hi all.... wondering what your perspective is regarding the death penalty. Do you think a murderer who has confessed to killing should immediately be put to death or do you think they can be rehabilitated? I don't mean to offend anyone. Just curious.

qspawnq 4 Apr 11
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41 comments

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5

I'm a Canadian so like the rest of the civilized western nations we got rid of that barbaric practice a long time ago. End of discussion.

1

Death sentence is wrong unless in a case of civil war or a situation where the state can't handle the number of prisoners without collapsing.
Explaining:
Human rights exists, and it is for all humans, in our out of jail
Jail exists to protect the society, the state is not an avenger, is a protector.
So the state should limit the minimum possible of natural rights to make society work. So it limits your right to take what you want or use force to create a stable society. It limits your freedom if you are a danger to society etc.
A person that is already subjugated and isolated on a prison don't pose any threat to society, so take the last right that is life won't make society better, still just avenge, and the state cannot have this kind of feeling.
And remember, the state IS the society. So death penalty is society telling that we will kill a person that has no way of defending itself and pose no more threat to us. I will always be against it.

3

why are those the two choices? presenting those two choices implies that if someone cannot be deemed rehabilitatable that person should be immediately put to death. is that why we kill people? because they cannot be rehabilitated? and how are we supposed to judge ALL confessed murderers the same way? maybe some can be redeemed and others cannot. is the confession what makes the difference? people DO make false confessions sometimes. i am against the death penalty altogether and it certainly has nothing to do with confessions or rehabilitation. it has to do with us, the ones who did not murder. i do not see why getting together in a group makes it okay for us to kill someone when otherwise it would not be okay. oh, s/he deserves it. well, the murderer obviously thought so about the victim, too! oh, s/he can't be rehabilitated. well, how wonderful that we can figure that out at a glance and apply that to every single murderer. you know, in my heart i wanted manson dead. my dad joined the army because he wanted to go personally strangle hitler. those are not unnatural feelings, but murderers have them too -- about people we don't think they should kill. we're not different from murderers because we choose worse people to want to kill. we're different because we control our impulses and don't DO it. so how it is justifiable for us to get together as a group and decide to give in to those impulses?

g

3

Random psychopath or cheating lover? Laying in wait in the dark or crime of passion? Blanket "killing" isn't going to cut it for discussion......

1

Even without commenting on the death penalty; confessions are not reliable in proving guilt.

JimG Level 8 Apr 11, 2019
5

I’m against it.

1 - It’s irreversible. You can’t unexecute the innocent.

2 - Life in prison is a worse punishment than death.

3

No government should be in the business of killing people, much less it's own citizens.

2

I think that rehabilitation is the necessary choice.

3

Not in favour for lots of reasons. There are too many mistakes in backgrounds in judging, and in sentencing. People who are judged to be violent or dangerous to others should be kept separated but all other people who commit offences should be rehabilitated. And what about a woman who kills an abusive husband? Should she be immediately put to death under your system?

should we just take the word of the woman that her husband was abusive?

@callmedubious should we just take the word of any victim that a crime has been committed? Evidence is part of the nature of any crime.

4

Not a fan of the death penalty...Due process needs to play out every time. We cannot make mistakes.

2

Depends entirely on the nature of the killer. If the murder is a one-time crime of passion or revenge then rehab is justified, if it's the work of a sexual sadist, thrill killer or any other form of psychopathy, then execution or lifetime confinement is the only justifiable recourse because psychopaths can't be rehabilitated.

3

Individual cases vary as far as rehabilitation but I don't believe in killing for killings sake.

0

Okay.

To kill someone for killing is hypocritical.

To place a confessed killer on an operating table and dissect all usable organs, bones and tissue in the most comfortable manner possible, minimizes the hypocritical nature of the death penalty.

It is no longer an eye for an eye. It is you commit murder, now you save many as you are executed.

I think this solution sounds good. However, knowing our judges, I'm afraid that many innocent people will be convicted just to harvest the organs.

2

I'm against the death penalty under all circumstances.

0

I have a lot of very mixed feelings about the Death Penalty.
Too many to express here.

2

I’m against the death penalty. There is no such thing in Europe. You can not say killing is wrong and do the same. I am totally against.

See and respond to my post above please.

2

In EUA there is dead penalty, yet you have a huge rate of crime. There is no point in taking peoples life...it's cruel. You can not say it's wrong to take someone's life and do the same.

But then you have a problem with prisoners killing other prisoners and guards. How do you protect other persons from murderous prisoners? In the U.S., solitary confinement has a lot of critics as being inhumane and their is a move to abolish that...so how do you keep prisoners and guards safe if you cannot execute? Seems like quite a conundrum.

@dahermit well in USA people are so religious,( so don't take what god gave 😛 ) and you live in pure capitalism so jails are a way of creating business and jobs.

0

You have to take into account that most "confessions" have been shown to have been coerced and, few if any guilty murderers actually confess.

0

I believe that the death penalty should be reserved for the most extreme cases in which the person is actually caught in a cruel and vicious attack or deliberately sociopathic action which is terribly dangerous to others; and only such cases that there is a clear and persistent pattern which makes the person a clear and present danger to society. In such cases, there is no doubt that such a person MUST isolated from society, but we have no obligation to expend public funds to keep such a person alive. Ergo, such a person merits the death penalty.

But, would that not be the cost of living in a civilized society? Keeping them away from others for safety?

@Freedompath No, not to me.

@wordywalt ok, then you can wall yourself off!

@Freedompath I have a right to my reasoned perspective, as do you. I am not walling myself off, and I will not be walled off my anyone else.

@wordywalt ok..,I never attacked your opinion...I just pointed out another alternative if you feel threatened!

@Freedompath I do not feel threatened. I am just asserting that I am not walling myself off and, as you seem to assert.

@wordywalt I re-looked up the words ‘assert,’ ...verb, ‘declare’... and alternative ...adjective, ‘offering a choice’...I meant the word ‘alternative,’...I took our exchange of ideas, as just that, you do what fits you...making suggestions means to me...that we can take them or leave them!

@Freedompath okay. No need for an argument.

@wordywalt sometimes, we need arguments to clear up things! It just needs to be up-front and rational.

I think a " psychopath is by definition mentally deranged. But maybe we should kill him anyway? An interesting question might be, are there SOME psychopaths aware of their mental state and REFRAIN from criminal acts deliberately, knowing their moral compass is broken?

@Storm1752 A psychopath knows the difference between right and wrong, but does not care. All that matters to him or her is what he or she wants. A psychopath is NOT psychotic.

0

I would leave that up to the immediate family. The captured videos of Police Brutality and Military Crimes against humanity have never been addressed. Will the American Indiian or the Blacks of the South ever be given justice. Every convict receives medical attention and innocent people die everyday from lack of medicine or proper medical attention. Your talking a muted argument that has been raging for centuries.

0

I don't think confessions are reliable, but there are crimes that deserve the death penalty. We have ways of collecting hard evidence and of gathering data, that are pretty conclusive. I'd be more in favor of executing child rapists, than I would murderers, on the whole.

0

in my opinion, all child predators should be killed, serial killers, serial rapists, people who kill off their entire families, wives and husbands who kill their spouses and or children, hate crime murders. Yes, I absolutely do agree with the death penalty.

No, in my opinion killing the criminal is far far too easy and kind, they SHOULD be made to endure imprisonment for the Term of their Natural Life with NO chance/hope of Parole or Early Release on Good Behaviour Grounds what-so-ever.

Too many people wrongly convicted. Once they are dead, there is no hope to correct the error. We are the only western culture who still has the death penalty. The death penalty must go.

So no nuance, no consideration for mental derangement, because of physical abnormalities or, say, a cruel upbringing?

@Storm1752 I just feel like some ppl are so not deserving of life and there is no rehabilitating ppl like that

@Triphid only problem is we the tax payers have to suffer, they don’t deserve to eat or breathe anymore!

@sandrarocks83 Why not 'install' them on some very remote island, particularly one where sharks congregate ALL the time, give them very basic of needs then merely let them fend for themselves.
If it were up to me I'd happily put them on the Bikini Atoll where the U.S. did ever so many Nuclear Bomb Tests. No necessity for Prison Cells, wardens, high walls, etc, there and eventually, IF the radiation doesn't kill them ever so slowly and most agonizingly, then ONLY the strongest of them will live out his/her sentence in the end.

0

I'm for certainty. It has to be certain. Also, I believe that it must fit the crime. Planned, cold blooded or multiple. Less than that would not fit. Also agree to pedophiles, but definitely must fit the crime and be a defined type and be much worse than just having the materials. Not saying that isn't a crime but not capital punishment worthy. Also, I don't want to think too much about what that means.

I do think that confession does mean something. It can bring closure to families and lower court costs. I think there should be some leniency for that.

0

wouldn't that depend on the circumstances?

5

I firmly believe that NO-ONE has the right to take life from any other person and since there have been, in the past, innumerable cases of Wrongful Executions then LIFE imprisonment for a capital crime SHOULD LIFE without ANY hope of early release or parole.
The same, in my opinion, should go for Paedophiles, Rapists and habitual Thieves, etc, as well.

Were Hitler and Stalin deserving, to name just two? If your answer is 'no,' then there's nothing to discuss.

@Storm1752 The entire Leadership ( Field Marshalls, Generals, etc, etc,) of the Nazi party, Stalin, Pol Pot, EVERY Pope and Catholic Priest, Cardinal/Bishop, etc, who either stayed silent or condoned the slaughter, rape and pillaging of native peoples throughout the centuries or was involved in the abuse of children or adults in the name of Religion throughout the centuries, any Ruler, King or Queen who sanctioned the same, ergo EVERYONE who has ever or will ever kill or cause pain and suffering to a victim/s with deliberate and or malicious forethought deserves imprisonment for the Term of His/her Natural Life in my opinion.

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