Before we even talk about capital punishment, can we get false convictions below 10% please?

Being an atheist has no bearing on whether one would or would not support capital punishment.

Lots of so-called "right-to-lifers" are anti-abortion and pro-capital punishment.
That there's one of those oxymorons.

I’m against capital punishment and I’ve been against it forever, even when I was still a churchgoer. Doubtful there’s a correlation between atheism and support of capital punishment.

can't answer for others, but I am opposed to capital punishment. Why not frontal lobotomy instead with a stretch in the coal mines?

Why do you believe there's a relationship between atheism and how someone feels about capital punishment?

Capital punishment (lets get real and not sugar coated by calling it what it really is) the death penalty has never been an reducing homicide. It also has a long history of being used unevenly. This is a very brief summery of why I don't approve of the death penalty.

The Abrahamic religions do seem to encourage the death penalty because it has a very punitive way of dealing with what they would consider to be its transgressions. So I wouldn't be surpised if athiest are less inclined to subscribe to the death penalty

No modern civilized society would impose capital punishment.

Notwithstanding, it should be the right of any inmate to demand death in lieu of serving the balance of his / her sentence. Death would be by nitrogen asphyxiation: simple, effective and painless.

I am opposed to the death penalty. Simply put, I don't think it is right to kill someone, and certainly not out of anger. I would like to think that thinking humans have evolved beyond that. Society needs to be protected from dangerous people. We have incarceration for that.

And we sure as heck need to take it off the table until we get the criminal justice system straightened out. You can watch The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town ... for just one example of miscarried justice. One guy was 5 days away from execution when his lawyers were finally able to get him exonerated. The town had a history of locking the wrong people up.

NO...but not because I’m an atheist, but because I am a human being and don’t believe the State should be in the business of killing its citizens. Progressive countries do not have capital punishment, if later it’s found that there has been a miscarriage of justice and the convicted person was not guilty of the crime, then they can be released. This has happened innumerable times in Britain, but if they had been hanged instead of serving life sentences, they would have been killed unjustly, As long as there’s a chance of a miscarriage of justice there should never be capital punishment.

Sticky question, in some cases yes the people who are really guilty( the one sticking point, we should never take a chance on killing an innocent person) . What some don't realize is that sociopathic killers are a danger to other inmates and staff, they don't deserve to be murdered either. I worked in the medical department in a prison some of the killers do deserve it, no remorse and would do it again without thought. The problem is that the current criminal justice system is dependent on victory not justice , innocent people are convicted. And in the cases of crimes of passion they won't repeat it .

I'm opposed to capital punishment (CP) for two principal reasons, neither of which have anything to do with religion or lack of religion.

1. Even if one thinks there are supremely heinous crimes for which CP is morally justified, that's not the problem. The problem is the marginal, borderline cases. Could we ever agree on where to draw the line? Obviously not. So there will be some crimes where some juries would say CP, but other juries would say no. Should we kill people randomly, depending on which jury they get, like rolling dice? Obviously not.

2. Despite over 100 years of practice, we still cannot come up with a fair system for administering CP. Black people find their way to death row at a much greater rates than whites. What we currently have is an unfair, racist system. Will we ever be able to come up with a fair system, administered by human beings, which is free from the influence of politics, religion, racism, and all the other biases people bring to the table? Obviously not.

Therefore, get rid of CP.

If it wasn't for capitol punishment, Jesus would not have died. Therefore, we would not be saved!

Joking!

Back to square one: We Atheists are not believers. Your false leading question has no answer. Some Atheists sit on juries and vote for lethal injection upon convicted killers. Some Atheists vote for politicians who want death penalties in 11 states without death penalties. Iowa is a life in prison state since 1960 the death by hanging law repealed by Atheist Senator John Ely.....there are wide varieties of Atheists regarding the root of your Australian question here inside USA....please don't teach children Atheists are adjectives and believers....we Atheists are free of theism....alleged gawds are impossible concepts such as division by zero or alleged vaginal virgin birthing an alleged baby gawd in a dirty donkey stable by a fake back dated calendar where real King Herod died 4 bce making the idiotic bible story 100% fiction

I am against it. Here is the best argument that I heard. If you lived in someplace like Rwanda that suffered massive genocide. With little or no resources to deal with a large prison population. Then it might be the only way to go. But we do not live in a place like that and we do not need it.

Here is what I can tell you about capital punishment. If someone is a killer and you kill them, they will never kill anyone else again.

Some do, some don't. Similar to non-atheists.

I don't.

Why would being an atheist determine whether or not one was or was not in favor of capital punishment? Even if every atheist on this site responds (and that won't happen) you will still be dealing with too small a sample to determine the general view of atheists. But it's a bit like asking whether atheists prefer blue or purple. There is no atheist rule book.

For the record I am against the death penalty. There is no connection between my views in that regard, as an individual, and my not believing there are any gods.

g

We don't have it here (Canada) but they do in the US, and under their legal system it doesn't really seem to work all that well. Those who are condemned to death have so many avenues of appeal open to them that they are usually incarcerated for years before execution and sometimes are not executed ever. It has been pointed out that the cost in dollars, to keep someone on death row for the amount of time necessary for that person to exhaust all of their appeals, is often more than it would have been to keep them locked up for life in regular jail. The idea of revenge in the justice system is abhorrent to me, and I think punishment is usually counterproductive. On a per capita basis the US has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world and yet they also have one of the highest rates of violent crime. Punishment doesn't seem to be working all that well for them. For me the answer is NO.

Do I BELIEVE in capital punishment?

Certainly I do - there is vast, testable evidence that demonstrates its existence beyond reasonable doubt.

Is it JUSTIFYABLE?

No.

I can't speak for others, but I do not support capital punishment.

It actually costs the state more to put someone to death than it does to keep them in prison for life. For that reason, I oppose it. We don't even need to decide the philosophical question of whether or not is is right to put someone to death.
[amnestyusa.org].

I doubt there's a correlation, any more than between religious people who supposedly believe in the "right to life" and at the same time, often support and push for execution.

Personally, I don't, except in the most clear-cut and egregious cases- say, a school shooting or serial killer in which there is no doubt whatsoever that this, this here, this right here is the guy who did it. (And it is overwhelmingly males who commit crimes of this nature.)

I supported the death penalty for those involved in planning the 9/11 attacks as well, to the extent we could prove who were the masterminds, not simply messengers or cogs in the machinery. Simply belonging to Al-Qaeda during 2001 was not sufficient to be tortured to death in some shithole country that extradited people for us.

This is a question. It's not a poll, but you could have made it one.

Ethically, I oppose the death penalty. It's not effective as a deterent and the "biblical" eye-for-an-eye mentality is about as morally repulsive as the rest of the bible. In a civilized society the state should rehabilitate criminals or keep them segregated from society to protect the populace, but it's not within the mandates to punish human beings. Capital Punishment is simply state sanctioned revenge. It's not about justice, but appeasing our barbaric nature.

I admit that there are many cases where I would like to see criminals suffer for their crimes, particularly in heinous crimes against children, but that desire isn't based on logic or justice. It's simply a base craving for vengeance.

I know people will argue that murderers can be paroled, but wrongly convicted murderers have been released as well, and parole isn't granted unless it's approved by a review board. Maybe we should look at those standards and create the option for sentences of life without parole in every state.

One case I remember was in the Central Park jogger assault. There a rich, white jackass campaigned for the death penalty for five black teens who were convicted of rape and attempted murder after a woman was viciously attacked in Central Park in New York City. Those kids spent eighteen years in prison before they were exhonorated by DNA evidence and a confession by the actual rapist.

Had they been sentenced to death, there's a good chance that at least some of their executions would have been carried out before their innocence was revealed.

Getting a universal opinion from a group of atheist's, agnostics and free thinkers is about like herding cats! My personal opinion is that too many people are convicted not for guilt but color or politics! So no i am against capital punishment.