Death Penalty

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Wrong / right?

Fire away guys and gals.

 

Wrong. Man has no right to play God. Killing someone who has done something wrong not erase the wrong, it merely erases the person who committed the wrong and hurts the poor souls who had the misfortune of being related to the criminal.

Life in prison is not only actually cheaper then a death penalty trial, but life in prison gives us a certian amount of room to remedy an error in our convictions (guaranteed we've stole life from them that they'll never have back, but we've failed to steal all of their life like with capital punishment).

Since death penalty really serves no purpose other then state sponsored revenge I can't see the purpose of having it around. Maximum security prisons aren't exactly revolving doors and violent offenders tend not to have the same likelyhood to repeat as sex offenders. Lock a man up 35+ years and because he doesn't have the testosterone level he did in his 20s or 30s any further violent acts are extremely rare. An exception should be made for those with anti-social personality disorder as it's only a matter of time before they end up back in the system so it's simply easiest to keep them in the system (psychological testing and observation would allow one to know if someone suffered from this personality disorder).

The death penalty typically doesn't even help the victim's family recover. The act merely perpetuates hate and other emotions tied to the trial. If someone say, to revenge directly, that would release much of the built up rage, but there is nothing that can be done about the sorrow. When a murder happened, closure is obviously needed, but a second and powerful emotional event is not.

 

3 years, 3 years and 2 years old respectively .

 

It depends on the situation. Murderers that killed either more than once, on purpose, or when it is premediated murder should all be killed. They took away someone else's right to life, their right to life is now forfeit. By jailing murderers, it just shows other killers that the punishment isn't so bad. Life in jail is bearable, most men/women cannot bear their own death so easily.

War Criminals too.

 

I've been told by a teacher that democracy is better than any other known system cause your life is "secured". So, if that basic principle is taken away, one could think it doesn't differ much from a dictatorship (in the end, people dies).
Also, not being able to deal with extreme behaviours isn't a sign of an advanced society. It has been shown that the system doesn't work perfectly, and for that alone, it should be abolished. I mean, you won't see a judge or lawyer or whatever die because he sent someone to the electric chair, which in my opinion is actually killing that person (with an almost cientific precision, Chaplin would say).

 

No, they condemned themselves by commiting the crime. The jury and judge are there to find if they are truly guilty. If they are, then they lost their right to life when the committed the crime (that is, if they are guilty and it is deserving of the death penalty)

No, we don't. And we aren't. Creating life is playing God. Taking it away is not. Thousands of people die everyday, and whatever kills them is not playing God. Also, if you are saying that by killing people, we are trying to be God, then what about the murderer in the first place? S/he didn't have the right to "Play God" either...

 

Since there are other options than killing a murderer, those who judge over him/her are guilty.

The right to live is a fundamental ethical (and judical) principle of western civilization. Every human being stands under its protection from the moment he or she is born. No one has the right to deny the right to live to anyone. The only exception is suicide.

The death penalty is state-sanctioned revenge to give satisfaction to the masses.

Nothing more, nothing less.

 

I wish someone would bring it in in the UK. It would certainly deal with the Yob problem.


I read a good question yesterday actually, it asked why they use a sterilised needle for death by lethal injection..... Think about it.

 

Because they stick the needle in before they actually start the process, and the governer could call between those two events. Of course, it would be pointless to call and save the prisoner if you gave them an infection that killed them.

 

The power over life and death is that of a God because only a god has power over what happens after such an action. It is immoral to take an action which leads to circumstances you never could control when you undertook such an action.

Also if creating life makes one a god, then every mother is a goddess.

 

Not going to get into that one... I thought you religious people felt that while the mother carries the child, God is the one who actually creates it and forms it, etc?


On topic:

If that is so, then what do we do with those who denied the right to life through murder? We can't just stick them in jail, it is our money going to pay for someone who has forfeitted their rights by breaking the law and the code of ethics. It is not all about money though. I don't think people who kill deserve to walk this earth (and lets not get into a war debate ).

 

Isn't the death penalty system in the US quite expensive, and slow? I vaguely remember reading it's more costly to keep the inmates on death row than in regular cellblocks.

And every father is a god.

 

in about 2002 it cost roughly 25% percent more to inflict capital punishment then to sentence life in prison.

Fathers are only donors . They just supply the ingredients, we men don't actually get to build anything .

I'm one of those tricky heretics. I find it very easy to say God created scientific law and lets it do the work in the material world. God can have the moral world, but a in material world that would seem to be quasi-determinalistic and very mechanical, God just gets caught up in the wings and becomes superfluous.

I can't stand the though of being handcrafted by God; gives my life too much inherent value (inherent value restricts my ability to advocate right to death). Yes, I'm all for terminally ill patients been able to kill themselves, but I don't like the death penalty. Now if an inmate requested the death penalty, I'd see no problem in helping with his wish.

 

Alright, so we've reached a moot point on the God issue.

But, I am still in favor of the death penalty, although, not excessive sentences of death. Only in specific cases.

 

I only see it as being right in premeditated murder, certain war crimes, and extreme rape cases.

TBH I don't see why they bother with leaving people on Death Row forever. I mean, they have to feed all these people sentenced to death for years, why not just leave them in the place for 2 years to give them a chance to appeal or evidence proving them innocent to be found, and if neither of those comes through then kill them...quit wasting money.

 

Death penalty = good thing.

I believe a life sentence should be a short one.

I believe no murderer should be treated any better than their victim.

There is no humane way to kill a person. Get over it and just do it. Forget about the cotton swabs to sanitize the injection point -- damn it, why does that even matter (use a rusty aids infected needle for all I care). It doesn't take a medical person to inject poison into the blood, even a junkie can do it.

I really don't care how a murderer dies -- although I would prefer him to die as painfully as his victim.

 

I'm with Bruno. Those sentenced to die usually did something truly horrible. I cannot find any sympathy for them.

And on the money issue, There is a prick named Paul Bernardo, sitting in prison here in Ontario, in Highly secure cell, costing more than $100 k annually to keep. Wouldn't it be cheaper to chop his head off? At least put him in the General Population and let the prisoners have their way with him like Dalmer...

 

Indeed. Usually. The thing is that sometimes those sentenced have done nothing horrible, and die innocent. Even one wrongly executed person is enough to make the death penalty inhumane in my eyes. In any case I have mentioned it in the earlier topics that I find retribution to be a complete wrong method of dealing with criminals. The goal should be to rehabilitate them to society if possible, it certainly is not possible allways in which case they should naturally be locked away. There really aren't enough of them to make the state go bankrupt anyway.