Death Penalty?

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What do you all feel about the death penalty? good detterent for crime or just cruel?

Cruel and permanent.

It doesn't matter whether people "think" it's a good deterrent; the statistics appear to show that it is not. Either way, you'll just get emotional responses to that question.Some people think that vengeance alone is a valid reason to have the death penalty.The big problem is that the justice system is nowhere close to perfect, and a surprisingly large number of innocent people wind up on death row. How many is too many? The Republican former governor of Illinois thought there were way to many, and put a stop the the death penalty in that state, a couple of years ago.Once a person is dead, it doesn't matter if his conviction is overturned by new evidence (e.g., DNA testing). You can't bring him back.

People suffer more in prison, Im against the death penelty but for bruital criminals to be in more horriable prisons. The death peneltys not a punishment, if they are going to do it, it should be more horriable than some pussy arsed injection.

The U.S. Constitution ("cruel and unusual punishment") gets in the way of that, at least for U.S. citizens on American soil. Or so they say. The death penalty is not even an issue in Europe.

Unfortunatly. It would save a lot of money, I think they should bring back hanging. Its not a fast death but its not a horriably slow one and I'm sure the familys would take great pleasure in watching it. As with the wrongly accused thing, I think they should have the death penelty but imprison them for 4 or 5 years before being executed. 1 this = more punishment and also gives time for more evidence to come to light (if any)One thing that does anoy me is that serial rapists and pedophiles get let back on the street. One of my friends was raped as a child and this guy did it to 36 other people and is getting let out this year "because hes old" I think thats fucked up. He should get the noose in my opinion, more so than someone who killed somone.

It would save a lot of moneyIn reality, it costs a lot more money. A death penalty prosecution is very expensive. More expensive than a life sentence with no hope of release. It would have been easier to keep the the serial pedophile rapist in prison until he died than to take him out and hang him.The legal death penalty process is necessarily expensive. If it were simplified, even more innocent people would wind up on death row. How many wrongful executions is the death penalty worth?

I didnt know it was more expensive. Is that an actual fact?

America was a premeir nation of imprisonment and not just killing people outright.

I didnt know it was more expensive. Is that an actual fact?I live in Florida. "Florida spent average of $3.2 million per execution from 1973 to 1988." See the DPIC Web site for references.> America was a premeir nation of imprisonment and not just killing people outriYes, and now we have more people in prison per capita than any other country except China, I believe. Lots of people serving time in federal prisons for drug offenses. The U.S. is not a very libertarian society.

You would have thought it would be cheaper, I guess the death penely is rather a pointless practice then.

It would be cheaper than expensive injections but the cost of the trial and appeals like steve said would cost the tax payer more. If they could cut down on the cost I think hanging would be the best way of death, but first they have to have a day in the stocks so the familys of the victims can throw rotten fruit and bottles at them.

Hanging is not humane. If you want to torture the person, there are cheaper, easier, and less theatrical ways to do it.

But hanging is a pretty satisfying way to see somone die. If somone had killed a loved one of mine I would sure want to see them twitching at the end of a rope. Personaly I dont think mass murderers and other people who would be in line for the death sentence deserve to die humainly.

> I dont think mass murderers and other people who would be in line for the death sentence deserve to die humainly.

You should see who's on Texas' death row. They execute people who've committed crimes as minors. They execute the mentally retarded. They execute people whose appointed lawyers slept through the trial. And a lot of people have been getting off death row with DNA testing.

You have to realize that the same govenment that you consider to be moronic and incompetent is the same government that's convicting people and pulling the switch.

But still, drawing and quartering should be an option. Between Texas and Florida, there have to be at least four spare horses.

Just because someones a minor or mentaly retarded doesnt mean they should be alowed to get away with crimes and get lesser punishment than anyone else. A crimes a crime, sure I think people should deserve a second chance and should be alowed back out because everyone fucks up. Its people who comit serious crimes multiple times that really tick me off because they know its wrong they just continue to do stuff because thye think they can get away with it. Those are the poeple who need to be hung.

> They execute people whose appointed lawyers slept through the trial.

never heared of that happenin before.

>You have to realize that the same govenment that you consider to be moronic and incompetent is the same government that's convicting people and pulling the switch.

The government has nothing to do with the verdict of inocent and guilty its the jury and judge who make the decision. The only problem with this being that the decisions are made by people and people can be bought out etc.

There are several cases of lawyers falling asleep during trials for capital crimes. There are a lot of cases of appointed lawyers conducting completely incompetent defenses. Why do you think O.J. Simpson's now living in my old neighborhood, rather than on death row? He sure as hell didn't have a free lawyer.The standard of civilization in most of the world is not to execute people who don't have control over their actions, or comprehension of what they're doing.All in all, I don't think life was that much better in the dark ages, even though you might have found some aspects enjoyable.> The government has nothing to do with the verdict of inocent and guilty its the jury and judge who make the decision. The only problem with this being that the decisions are made by people and people can be bought out etc.Well, government agencies are populated by regular people, just as juries are. The court system is still a government structure.

in our history, convicted murderers have been exonerated and released based on new science (mostly DNA) If those people were killed, how the fuck could we appologise for our mistake?

"Just because someones a minor or mentaly retarded doesnt mean they should be alowed to get away with crimes and get lesser punishment than anyone else."That's crappy. What do you consider a minor in a case where he/she get's the same death as those who have done worse damage?

also, stats show that it is only a deterrent to repeat offenders AND it isn't generally cheaper to support a con in jail for his life.Something else that ticles me is that exicution is often supported by the religious right. I seem to remember reading a book that said someyhing about "thou shalt not kill". I don't remember seeing and exception clause.