Capital Punishment

[adherent]

Do you agree with capital punishment?

[adherent]

Sry, emmy27sf, but the Bible does mention capital punishment, MANY times in the old testament. Some crimes are definitely deserving death; the death penalty is not murder.
The way for people to feel that doing some sins are okay, they put all sins on an equal playing field, thus making murdering, rape, etc. just like lying to your parents about finishing your homework.
I think a nice way to deal with people is life-in-prison, even though taht is expensive and wasting precious jail space:)

[concerro]

capital punishment is wrong for 4 reasons
1)God created life and he is the only one eligbe to take it away
2)the bible says thou shal not murder
3)the bible says when someone slaps one cheek turn the other
4)to God all sins are the same a sin is a sin so if some one murders someone we love and we kill them then when we lie to someone they love would that not make it ok to kill us?

i also think that murder does not justify murder

1)I dont want to start another thread so I'm skipping that one
2)it is looked at as defending society from that person not murder
3)if i turn one cheek and then you slap the other, then you wont get any more slaps
4)to God they are the same becuase once we sin we are no longer perfect, to humans all wrong(crimes,sins) are not the same because they cause other humans varying degrees of difficuly. there is no way you would treat me saying somnething mean to you as trying to rape you so that is my example on a human level

I reread my post so I am reexplaing 2 and 3
2 if the person can not be reformed and will most likely always be a danger to society then I think they should be killed, this would normally apply to serial killers, rapist, and terrorist. i beleive it is the job of gov't to protect the citizens.
3. if someone does something and you just let it go, then maybe that person will think of you as an easy person to take advantage of and try to continue. i think turning the cheek is ok sometimes but you cant always do it.
When I tried to respond the first time I was not completely awake, so my answers were not clear

[bdbthinker]

Until our justice system is perfect, I don't agree with putting people to death. Why? because if the judgement is wrong, it's irreversable.
Also, killing someone is a fast way out. You're dead..blam. Life in prision is more of a punishment IMO.

[concerro]

Until our justice system is perfect, I don't agree with putting people to death. Why? because if the judgement is wrong, it's irreversable.
Also, killing someone is a fast way out. You're dead..blam. Life in prision is more of a punishment IMO.

What should we do with people who are to dangerous to be released into society, but are not mentally incompetent

[bdbthinker]

Until our justice system is perfect, I don't agree with putting people to death. Why? because if the judgement is wrong, it's irreversable.
Also, killing someone is a fast way out. You're dead..blam. Life in prision is more of a punishment IMO.

What should we do with people who are to dangerous to be released into society, but are not mentally incompetent

If they took a life, I think they deserve life in prison. I don't agree with capital punishment.

[Dilettante]

Here in the Former Roman Empire there is a lot of social pressure on people who are in favor of death penalty. They are generally seen as barbaric. A recent poll in my country showed almost 80 per cent of the population was against it and less than 20 per cent were for it. So the stereotype is: if you are against capital punishment you are a true democrat, and a civilized, enlightened person, while if you're for it you are a brutish Neanderthal. However, I think the issue is not that clear cut. the Enlightenment philosophers were generally supportive of capital punishment (Locke for example). Even John Stuart Mill defended it.

It seems to me that here are rational grounds to both positions. The main problem with the anti-death penalty position is that it tends to focus on criticism of the way capital punishment is applied (i.e. that it is discriminatory, etc) rather than attack the legitimacy of the institution itself (i. e., whether or not murderers deserve to die while rapists are not raped as punishment, etc). The main problem with the pro-death penalty position--apart from the issue of legitimacy-- is that the punishment is irreversible and no one can guarantee that no innocents will be executed. An additional problem is that the deterrence factor is far from proven, and really not a legitimate consideration (since executing an innocent would be just as effective).

Personally, while I do not wish to reinstate capital punishment for all murderers, I admit that in extreme cases it could be morally permissible (like abortion). I would not have wanted Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot or Eichmann to live, maybe in my own neighborhood, and have to look at them as they have breakfast at the local cafe. Though life in prison is generally better, and capital punishment would be unadvisable in the case of fanatical terrorists who regard themselves as martyrs, I'm not sure capital punishment is always 100% barbaric as critics think.

[MagusYanam]

I don't support the death penalty, but my reasons are a lot more pragmatic than they are ideological. Trying someone for a capital crime is a lot more expensive than doing so for a crime which would entail a punishment of life (or less) in prison, since the justice system must take great pains in its deliberations where the punishment is, as has been said many times, irreversible. Then there is the appeals process, which costs a great deal more again for a capital case than for a life-imprisonment case. And there is the actual cost of executing someone.

In Wisconsin (where I grew up), the death penalty was a hot topic, and I remember that a lot of policemen were active in opposing death penalty propositions, because it would mean policemen would spend more time testifying in court and less dealing with crime.

Personally, it's a self-interest issue. When I have to begin paying taxes, I want them to go to something useful, like eliminating the national debt or supporting public institutions and infrastructure. I want to be able to see what good it will do.

If that tax money is used to fix my public library, so much the better - the public can enjoy it. But if it goes toward injecting or zapping some deadbeat, what do we get out of it as a community? Great - another dead body. A criminal off the streets, some would say, but it's more like paying $20 for a $5 paperback. Waste of money, waste of resources, waste of time better spent elsewhere (in the case of judges and police).

[Piper Plexed]

I have always been on the fence with the death penalty, Hitler, Serial killers, I have no problem with ending their lives. Where I have a problem is the less extreme cases, ones that could have had inadequate legal representation due to financial resources, come on we all watched the OJ trial, justice is not really blind, is it? The thought of wrongly executing an innocent or impaired person just breaks my heart. Until the system is perfect, I will remain uneasy with capitol punishment.

[Christopher]

There are those that step beyond what any civilized society deems acceptable. Mass murder and serial killers, Child molestors............
I have no problem with Capital punishment for such people.
There are cases where the violation is of such an extreme nature that there is but one solution--to remove that person or persons from this earth.

In the majority of cases locking them away for life is indeed the worst you can possibly do--but some do deserve to die