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Do you approve capital punishment? If so, why?
Do you NOT approve captial punishment? If so, why? I personally do not and wrote a sociological issues research paper against the death penalty.

vjohnson51 7 Dec 22
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7

I am and always have been against it. Too many mistakes and one mistake is too many.

Exactly!

6

Statistically, the death penalty makes no difference as a prevention to crime. It is retributive justice and serves no other purpose.

As a utilitarian act it is ineffective as a practice for the criminal justice system.

6

Killing people is a lousy way to teach people not to kill and the death penalty only applies to poor people

also the death penalty is barbaric and has been eliminated in most 1st world countries

6

Capital punishment is a small drop in a very large pond when one considers what our government has been up to overseas. I would say that there are a very large amount of people with blood on their hands, they supported all of the war-mongering murderers in Washington who murder on a large scale, and walk away from it as if they were entitled to behave that way. Capital punishment is a mosquito in a room full of war criminals.

World War II ended 71 years ago. Since World War II, the USA has killed more than 20 million people, that averages out to roughly 282,000 per year, 23,474 per month, or 782 per day. The USA has been at war more than 90% of the time since 1776! The USA:
.
interfered in Iraq - there is a war there now.
interfered in Syria - there is a war there now.
interfered in Libya - there is a war there now.
interfered in Yemen - there is a war there now.
interfered in Ukraine - there is a war there now.
interfered in Somalia - there is a war there now.
interfered in Afghanistan - there is a war there now.
.
No pattern of behavior here at all, right?
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To all of those who support either Democrats or Republicans . . . . both are war parties . . .

It is no different than you picking up a weapon and shooting children, bombing them, starting wars, coups against democracies . . . . you are devoid of conscience, and you vote for the very criminal parties who sponsor all of the illegal, unjust, and atrocious activities. You are legitimizing them with your vote, you are authorizing the use of white phosphorus, depleted uranium, droning, bombing of hospitals, Israeli racism and murder of Palestinians, invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc., you caused the bombing and subsequent flow of refugees out of these countries, you are supporting the ascendency of Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, even ISIS, Lindsey Graham, the whole fucking Military Industrial Complex and AIPAC . . . . you support it all . . . . you are no better than the war criminals who do the everything mentioned above . .
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You have given your approval on all of this with your vote, that is an irrefutable fact.
.
This is why capital punishment is a mosquito in a room full of war criminals.
[globalresearch.ca]

5

No, I am against state sponsored murder.

5

I'm in favor of the death penalty when the crime is unspeakable and the guilt is unimpeachable. IE the Ted Bundys should be executed just as a matter of public safety. And in a perfect world, those would be the only cases. We don't live in a perfect world, and humans do not appear capable of limiting the DP to such cases. So no, life imprisonment is all I support; then if someone is mistakenly convicted, at least some redress is possible.

5

I am not for capital punishment for 2 reasons:

  1. People make mistakes. Sometimes innocent people are convicted due to bad representation, corruption, contaminated evidence, false confessions (the list goes on). Every now and again we hear about a person being released from prison and exonerated of the crime they were found guilty of due to "new evidence" or DNA evidence. So at the risk of killing an innocent person, I believe no one should be killed under the death penalty even for the most horrific crimes because...

  2. The death penalty is an easy way out. It's an "escape" from having to live with what you have done. I find life without parole to be a more intimidating punishment than death. You're left with your guilt, your sorrow, your helplessness, and the knowing that you will never be free again for the rest of your life. Yes, there are those who don't feel culpable and will never admit wrongdoing, but those are the kind of people who need to be in prison (or a mental institute). They are monsters; they are evil; and they don't deserve to be given relief of their punishment.

5

I don't agree with it primarily because a government should not be in the business of killing their own people. Logically, after my main point, it is more expensive with mandatory appeals; and a certain percentage of innocent people are put to death or found guilty. Also, our system has for a long time been biased toward minorities and the poor in handing out death sentencing. That said, I'll be the first to admit that there are scum out there who do not deserve to live, and I am perfectly okay with leaving them in solitary confinement and lose what is left of their sanity.

5

I oppose it because it doesn't work to deter crime.

niether does life in prison

4

NO. There is no room for error when you are speaking of an innocent persons life.

@vjohnson51 , we don't. We do know that many people were executed and later found innocent. Two stories immediately come to mind. In both the actual guilty party was caught for almost identical crimes later and gave the police the details of the actual crime an innocent person had been put to death for.
Google: Darlie Routier if you need an example of an innocent woman sitting on death row right now.

4

There are some sick fucks that don't deserve to be fed, watered and housed by us taxpayers until they die.

Otoh, there are many prosecutors that don't have any skin in the game. They need to be held accountable for any of their negligible actions and criminal intent.

twill Level 7 Dec 23, 2019

It's more expensive to execute than it is to keep a person in prison for life.

@RoboGraham how so? Legal maneuvers?

@twill Yeah, court costs. The average price tag per execution is 1 and a quarter million. The average life in prison cost is around 3/4 million.

@vjohnson51 Yeah it's counterintuitive so people assume that it's the other way around. I've gotten into a couple of arguments on this thread that you created about that very issue and these guys just refuse to believe it.

You wrote a paper about this?

4

I've read about 3 big problems with the death penalty:

  • for the crimes it is a penalty for, it's not a successful deterrent
  • the "system" isn't perfect, occasionally the wrong person has been sentenced for crimes that they didn't commit
  • the appeal process is very expensive, it'd be cheaper just to keep someone in prison for life.

So, to avoid the more costly option, and never kill the wrong person for a crime, I'm against the death penalty.

Gener Level 5 Dec 23, 2019
4

Government is incompetent in almost every endeavor.
I don't trust our government to determine who committed capital crimes and who has not.
The "Central Park Five", and the "Norfolk Four" are prime examples.
Therefore I'm against capital punishment.

BD66 Level 8 Dec 23, 2019
4

I usually endorse the death penalty for people like Hitler, Ted Bundy, George W. Bush, etc.
Guilt must be CERTAIN, the crime(s) must be truly horrifying, and the creep has to be without remorse and beyond rehabilitation without a doubt.

(just kidding about W.
He only deserves brutal torture.)

@vjohnson51 If I thought that, the death penalty would be too good for him.
Solitary confinement (no books, tv, visitors, correspondence, NOTHING...just him and four blank walls, a bunk, a stiff wooden chair) for life.
That'd be worse than death.

4

The ONLY way to ensure that no innocent person is ever put to death by the government is to simply not have a death penalty--period.

there are several steps before they are put to death. Making the innocent one much more rare then you might think

@benhmiller You stated "making the innocent one much more rare than you might think." Yes, it might be more rare--but as long as there is a death penalty--at some point-- an innocent person will be put to death; and, I am not willing to sacrifice even one innocent person. The death penalty is simply not necessary in order for justice to be served. And, too often, it is about vengeance--not justice.

Religious people, who love the death penalty, do so because they like to imagine that the person goes straight to hell to begin their eternal suffering. But, when they are dead--they are dead. Let them pay in the here an now.

3

Definitely approve of capital punishment.
There are some heinous crimes and some type of recidivism that warrant it.

3

Here is what I know about capital punishment. If you put the person to death that killed those innocent people it is certain that the killer will never kill again. If you believe the killer can be rehabilitated you are probably mistaken.

It is not a perfect system and yes, mistakes can be made. Most of them today come from cops or prosecutors who want to make a name for themselves.

3

In extreme, and I mean EXTREME cases, yes. Serial killers, war lords, terrorists.....yeah, no problem there. Beyond that, nope.

3

I favor the use of the death penalty ONLY in the case of psychopathic or sociopathic killers caught in the act or having concrete roof (like DNA evidence) that the person committed the crime(s) Such people, as long as they live, are a menace to others.

3

I think there are cases where it’s appropriate but our systems is terrible at fairly determining what those cases are. Since it’s so often wrongly applied, I don’t think we should be using it.

3

I have read the comments on this thread. As someone who have 3 people sitting on death row in 3 different states...I can assure you all three are guilty of murder...they admitted to their crime. They would rather be sitting on death row then be in prison for life. I don’t understand it either and have stopped trying to figure it out. I’m not an advocate for the death penalty for so many reasons. The biggest one though is...seeped in fucking religion...an eye for an eye the ultimate in hypocrisy because I want to know about the do onto others then and where does that fit???

If you were the type to, say, rape and murder children, maybe you'd WANT what you did unto them, done unto you, to get yourself put out of your miserable, despicable life.

Most of those against the death penalty are those who believe in religions

@benhmiller I would need to see statistics on that assessment. Fundamentalists in most religious groups are, from what I've seen, big supporters of the death penalty. Many catholics hold views against it, but not all (it is a part of their Vatican doctrine).

@Beowulfsfriend I don't have stats either but tend to agree with you. The fundies are much more authoritarian in mindset, in general.

3

I'm not known as some one who generally argues economic issues. In fact I greatly dislike economic. However, when looking at the capital punishment question; economically it is cheaper for society to keep a prisoner in prison for life, than it is to place them on death row. Given the cost of the numerous appeals, it is by far more expensive to society to sentence to prisoners to death, rather than give them life in prison. Neither options are satisfactory.

But since our prisons are not set up to rehabilitate, but rather to turn a one time offender into a life time criminal, we do not have a lot of options. Especially since the majority of prisons are now privately owned. Just ask Jeff Sessions

You are 100% correct. I have seen it first hand the profitability of the prison systems in this country.

So, what's that you say? You're against economic issues? And you go on to say you're against capital punishment (capitalism) specifically? Lol.😎

Actually I agree with you. I don't think capital punishment makes sense money wise or ethically. And on top of everything else, it's irrevocable -- when a mistake is ever made, there are only the least paths for redress. What's done is done.

The added cost to the death penalty is the endless appeals for them 20 years or more. All lawyers billable hours. The lawyers don't want to loose their cash cow. That is where the extra cost comes from.

@RichCC

I'm not against economic issues. Just not that intetested in economic topics, unless of coarse its associated with archaeology and prehistoric peoples.

@t1nick I know. I was joking about the word similarity. 😎

@RichCC

Got it. 😉

3

i never really supported it, but i once heard someone say (and i’m paraphrasing) “the consciousness we experience is so incredible. we barely understand what it is and why, and it’s crazy that we allow taking it away from someone as a punishment.” i’m sure he actually phrased it a bit differently, but it made me really look at the death penalty more closely. i don’t believe in an afterlife anymore, so knowing this life is all we get makes the thought of ending someone else’s horrifying to me. and i don’t think anyone should be given that power by a government. it doesn’t make any sense, especially considering how many people get punished for crimes they didn’t commit.

3

The death penalty is hypocritical. Killing is wrong, a perpetrator kills a person, society kills the perpetrator. It's the use of the crime to punish the crime. An eye for an eye is barbaric. We don't sentence rapists to be raped, why kill killers?

It's more expensive to execute prisoners than it is to keep them locked up for life. It's not a functional deterrent, states that have the death penalty have higher murder rates. And most importantly of all, the justice system is not perfect, mistakes are made, innocent people get executed.

@NoPlanetB No, they are given the same prison sentence as any other type of criminal. What the other prisoners do to them for vengeance is not determined by the justice system and therefore not passed onto them by society. For prisoners at risk of being victimized, segregation is, theoretically, an option.

3

Not against but it must be sure that they are guilty

bobwjr Level 10 Dec 22, 2019

How can we ever be totally certain the accused is guilty? Execution is final, if new evidence comes to light, well too late.

@RoboGraham multiple whiteness video real confession DNA ect it does happen

@bobwjr Witnesses can lie, videos can be edited, confessions can be coerced, and DNA can be planted by crooked cops.

@RoboGraham whiteness do lie or mistaken altered video can be detected forensics c can detect planted DNA and some readily admit guilt worked medical in corrections and met both real guilty and framed

@bobwjr I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are saying.

@RoboGraham current justice system is corrupted by the need to win at any cost . Worked medical in corrections got to know some on death row some admit their guilt and some in population were innocent. The guilty ones who were not crimes of passion were sociopaths who would repeat killing with no conscience, those who were crimes of passion would not repeat it. The sociopaths are a danger to all including staff and other prisoners.

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