Death Row!

Another thread got me thinking about this, and I wondered what your thoughts were on it.

Here in the UK up until 1998 the only crime you could (but never would have) received a death sentence for was treason, then in 1998 that crime was reduced in severity therefore totally abolishing the death sentence in the UK.

However I am all to aware that it does still exist in some states in the US and is carried out!

Do you agree with an eye for an eye (as it were), do you think it's right that people are put to death?

Do you disagree with it...why?

I personally don't agree with it, for

1) I don't think anyone has the right to take another persons life.

2) if that person has committed a heinous crime,, why would you want to cut there life short, surely suffering the hardships of prison is better punishment.

Discuss away :)

edit to add: I am not talking about euthanasia regarding illness that's another topic.

I don't think child rapist/molester/killers deserve to spend their lives in prison.

#21, so you think they deserve to be set free by death, this to me is a very odd punishment.

Original Post by andie-joe:

1) I don't think anyone has the right to take another persons life.

2) if that person has committed a heinous crime,, why would you want to cut there life short, surely suffering the hardships of prison is better punishment.

In theory, I am for the death penalty.  I don't mind killing a killer.  However, I do mind the idea that the 'killer' might not be the right person; there could have been a mistake.  Also, it is much more expensive to have a person on death row than in prison for life, as many here have pointed out.

The highlighted part above is laughable.  For many prisoners, it's a comparative life of luxury.  They don't have to really work, always get three meals a day, have a bed, free tv, free gym, free games, free library, free education to some degree.  The only hardships are that they don't get to see their family or go where they want and when they want.  There are lots of prisonsers who would rather be in prison than in the real world.  It's easier.  I've got a relative like this, though he's still got enough of a conscience to not do anything to keep him locked up for good.

i think the concept of "punishment" is highly subjective; what's torture for one person may be perfectly comfortable living conditions for another.

what i know is that the death penalty doesn't accomplish any of the things it pretends to do. 

1. it isn't an effective deterrent to crime;
2. it doesn't bring peace to victims;
3. it doesn't moderate cost to society; and,
4. it doesn't create a safer world.

killing doesn't promote healing, wellness, safety, or any other positive by-products.  and the question of "deserving" is irrelevant.

PG, you've hit the nail on the head.  And if a group of people feel that, in their domain, a particular punishment fits a crime, then I'm all for letting them decide that.  I might try to convince them that it doesn't fit, is ineffective, too expensive, or whatever, but it's not my place to force them to adopt a different punishment for said crime.

In the US, it's generally thought that it's better to have 10 guilty people free than one innocent behind bars.  In other parts of the world, the thought is that it's better to have 10 innocents behind bars than one guilty person roaming free.  It's all relative.

I totally agree with it and and don't believe it happens enough!!! That is why other countries look at our states as a joke because our level of herendous crimes and repeat offenders are off the chart in comparsion to our neighboring countries with more strictly enforced punishment....

huh?  futurebeauty, yours is the only country in the developed world that still executes people.  other countries understand that the US has a crime problem because it has a guns-and-poverty problem.

I think people become comfortable to the life in prison because that is what they know and to some degree feel safe and in control there. I would however say that having your liberties taken away from you is not easy for anyone.

Yes they get fed, tv, and use of a gym, but not necessarily free education I think that depends on whether it is state owned or private. I have a friend in prison and they said that the courses that are available are always full with a limit of 25 places.

The meals are also very basic, for everything else they need to earn the privilege to work so that they can buy things like

And I take this from a copy of a commissary order form

coffee, other beverages and drinks, greetings cards, stationary, medical, soap, deodorants, hair, oral hygiene, skin care, electrical, hobby, clothing/bedding/bath accessories, laundry products, misc, candy, cereals, condiments, cookies/snacks, canned goods, peanut butter, diabetic/ low cholesterol foods, chips.

Under each of those there are items to buy some cheap some not so, but unless they are good enough to earn the right to work or have someone to send them money in then they go without.

looking at the issue from a purely economic perspective, it costs much more on average carry out capital punishment than to keep a person in prison for the rest of their lives. Its not just a little more its several times more.  this is due to all the costs of appeals and all the judicial review that needs to go on

personally I am opposed to capital punishment and not just for economic reasons, I could write a book on why, but I have homework to do.

here's a good amnesty international short on capital punishment (don't worry - it's not graphic or overly melodramatic).

I agree with them totally, there should be a world wide ban!

No one deserves to die unnaturally. This world is mad.

Edit: "This world"= world as a whole.

While I usally don't talk about my view on this subject, I will this time.

I believe that if there is DNA evidence that someone did kill someone, that it is proven that they killed the person, then yes they should get the death penalty. Do not pass go, do not collect unlimited appeals, you are done.

I do disagree with lethal injection because it doesn't always work the way it is suppose to. A bullet doesn't cost that much and always does the trick.

And no I am not from Texas.

To all of you who believe that keeping convicts in prison for the rest of their lives as opposed to receiving the death penalty, which is more civilized- subjecting them to years of prison rape or shooting them? (or injection, as the case seems to be)

but tonic, like i said earlier, DNA is just the current gold-standard of evidence.  many people have been executed based on "proof" before the DNA technology, and there's no reason to believe that standards of evidence won't shift again in the future. 

and it's not the execution itself that is expensive; it's the legal process.  when someone is convicted in a death-penalty case (at least in the US), the appeals process can (and usually does) go on for years and cost millions.

Give the prisoner the choice of life in prison or death?

I am sure that all but perhaps one or two would always choose life!

If one person kills another it's murder regardless of how they try and disguise it.

If someone I loved was murdered, I might want them to pay for it with their life. At first. But then as I moved farther in the grieving process and realized that killing a second person wouldnt make the first person come back, Id want the killer in jail for life so they could live with their conscience. And have to eat Nutraloaf.

aretherestillinnocentswaitingtodie

This is one of the many reasons it should be banned.

If one person kills another it's murder regardless of how they try and disguise it.

Rubbish. If I hit someone with a car, I didn't murder them unless I did so with the intention of killing them. If a soldier or a police officer has to kill someone in the line of duty, they are not murdering them, they are protecting themselves from people who want to kill them. Murder requires malice, intent, and a lack of lawful justification.

I'm neither for nor against capital punishment. There are pros and cons to both sides of the equation, but the imperfection of the legal system makes me want to err on the side of caution. Given a perfect legal system then I would probably be for it though. However, I am 100% for hard labour. Prison is meant to be a punishment, not a workshop on how to commit crime better.

Original Post by p0nda:

If one person kills another it's murder regardless of how they try and disguise it.

Rubbish. If I hit someone with a car, I didn't murder them unless I did so with the intention of killing them. If a soldier or a police officer has to kill someone in the line of duty, they are not murdering them, they are protecting themselves from people who want to kill them. Murder requires malice, intent, and a lack of lawful justification.

 I was talking on the thread topic of capital punishment, not accidents or self defence.