Death penalty discussion

Please, go ahead!

Well, I personally believe that the death penalty is necessary to our society. There are many criminals out there who simply do not deserve to live. I know that sounds harsh, but these people are seriously messed up mentally. Even the most maximum security prison is escape-able, and having these people alive means they can get out and cause more suffering to innocent civilians. Do we really want people like Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, and Charles Manson around to kill, maim, assault, abuse, or otherwise harm more people?

In favor, but only for the most serious of crimes: serial murder (like Dahmer), mass murder, terrorism, and animal abuse. The rest of the world's criminals can be dealt with through regular prison sentences and fines and whatnot.

I've always strongly believed in prisons for rehabilitation, and not for punishment, or private economic gain. I think this because I believe there has to be some problem with the criminals psych to motivate them to do terrible things, which can be helped and sorted by a therapist. I think that harsh punishment or executions for people like terrorists just makes them martyrs, and makes the situation worse, whereas if you can sway them to become a functional human again, it would deeply damage the image of the terrorist group, as it shows that even their most dedicated members are willing to leave it behind. For this reason, I am mostly strongly against the death penalty unless there is no other option, but I also believe that life in prison is just as bad, as both withold you from society from the moment you get sentenced.

The most important thing to most people is there life, a criminal is much less likely to pull the trigger if he thinks he will suffer the death penalty for it.

Bowtie wrote:The most important thing to most people is there life, a criminal is much less likely to pull the trigger if he thinks he will suffer the death penalty for it.

Don't forget about drug addiction...

Dittatore_Signore_Massimo wrote:

Bowtie wrote:The most important thing to most people is there life, a criminal is much less likely to pull the trigger if he thinks he will suffer the death penalty for it.

Don't forget about drug addiction...

Even though I'm against it, I understand fully where many people in favour of it are coming from, but to punish a victimless crime which is often caused by poverty like drug addiction with death, that's a bit messed up. Maybe for a dealer, but a person living in poverty who has grown dependent on drugs because of their circumstances, a death sentence for them is inhumane.

I'd allow death penalty for genocide, mass rapists, and probably sociopaths/serial killers if it's proven they're too beyond help and have no moral capacity.

Forget the death penalty bring back torture

I strongly support the death penalty, especially in the military. Mostly for Treason and Mutiny.

I'm pro death penalty, but only for very serious crimes, as other people have said. That being said, I think we need a better method than lethal injections. Companies don't want to make them anymore, and states are running out of supplies. And they don't always work right. Personally, I think we should go back to the good ol' fashioned firing squad.

I still don't exactly know how I feel about the death penalty. But, it is my opinion that taking another human's life away from them is morally and ethically wrong, other than in war. I think these people, no matter their crimes, should be given a second chance at life (Albeit in a maximum security prison). But, yeah, still don't exactly where I stand on lethal injection and all that.

Rapists, pedophiles, murderers. The groups that should suffer the death penalty. Especially true for multiple offenders (those committing the crime more than once). It's not about deterring future criminals so much as preventing those who have done these things from ever acting again.

Yeah, I never got the people against the death penalty. Some people just don't deserve to live. Obviously we should try to rehabilitate most criminals, but it seems a bit dumb to just let someone sit in a cell for the rest of their life after something like mass murder.

The death penalty needs to be abolished in the United States. It is an outdated, barbaric institution and is highly anachronistic in the modern world. The United States is one of very few Western democracies that still allow it and it has become a cause for ridicule in the eyes of European thinkers. It's also a detriment to American society for the following reasons.

First: There is little quantitative data to suggest any negative correlation between capital punishment practices and crime rates, so there's no reason to believe the death penalty is a more effective deterrent against crime than indefinite incarceration.

Second: Our criminal justice system is inherently biased, and prejudiced. Penalties for crimes committed by racial minorities are disproportionately harsh, and conviction rates are skewed as well.

Third: There's no guarantee that any given case has been decided correctly. There is a long list of capital convictions which have been overturned after the fact. Sometimes their sentences were vacated before they could be executed; other times they had to be exonerated posthumously.

Fourth: As mentioned above, decisions are often reversed when it's too late to save the defendant. This highlights one of the merits of incarceration versus execution: there's still hope of redemption. If you find evidence that clears a defendant of the crimes of which he was convicted, it's a lot easier to release him from his cell than to excavate and reanimate him. Death is an irreversible penalty that allows no room for correction after the fact.

Fifth: American execution methods are cruel and unusual. In recent years, it has become commonplace to hear news of yet another execution which has gone horribly awry. Lethal injection is an extremely risky procedure which has the potential to cause extreme agony in the subject. This method, which was conceived in good faith in order to provide a more quick and humane death than other modes of execution, has so far produced disappointing results. The typical procedure in most states is to administer by intravenous injection a three-drug cocktail consisting of a potent barbiturate to terminate consciousness, a muscle relaxant to induce paralysis and induce respiratory arrest, and a potassium salt solution to induce cardiac arrest. In theory, the barbiturate would render the subject unconscious within thirty seconds, but its reliability is questionable and its not uncommon for witnesses to report seeing subjects convulsing, arching their backs, and displaying signs of excruciating pain. And the whole process seldom resolves as quickly as advertised. To make matters worse, many of the pharmaceutical companies on which the government has relied for the fatal drugs have begun to withhold their products from practitioners of lethal injection. In response, some states have begun to prepare simpler but more gory alternatives, including shooting, lethal gas, electrocution, and hanging.

Sixth: The notion that execution saves money compared to indefinite incarceration doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Careful review of government expenditures has shown that it is more expensive, on average, to keep a prisoner on death row, handle the extensive legal expenses inherent in capital cases, and then execute him, than to simply keep him in prison for the rest of his life.

For more information, see this segment from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: