Death Penalty

[CmdrTostada]

I agree with Nut4Disney. I know I have attacked the British government before on this board and got a few people mad, but I have to do it again. In Great Britian they have found that most people that go to jail come back within a year, so they are thinking about giving prisoners the equivalent of a $300 a night hotel room as a cell, to get them to not come back. The prisoners will have their own room, own bathroom, own computer with internet access, own bed, and all the amenities they want. They get an extremely nice hotel room for holding up a store. Who wouldn't want to go back to prison after that.

 

[Lance]

I am against the death penalty, and as Dawn said, we let those sickos win when we kill them!!! Easy way out!

 

[Tramp]

Originally posted by Lance
I am against the death penalty, and as Dawn said, we let those sickos win when we kill them!!! Easy way out!

Hi Lance...

I've heard this argument all my life and gave it a lot of thought.

...To conclude that a murderer wins if he is executed, one has to also conclude that he/she must've murdered to commit suicide and, therefore, gets want he wants when he is executed. Most murderers don't want to get caught and don't want to die. The preference to die rather than serve a life sentence ONLY seems to matter AFTER they are convicted. Up until then, their attorneys do their best to get them a life sentence cuz, in truth, they want to live. What the murderer wants doesn't matter cuz he really has NO choice.

I would agree with the 'sicko wins' argument if the judge said, "Ok, you're guilty, do you want to be executed or do you want to serve a life sentence.

There are SOME murderers that I would prefer to see serve life sentences rather than die. As an example, the mother in Texas that drowned her 5 small children should rot in jail for the rest of her life so every waking minute of her life she can see the terror on the faces of her kids as she pushed them under the water.

 

[Horizons38]

against the death penalty.

 

[FutureCEO]

Originally posted by tenchu
I've stayed out of this so far because I am undecided as to my views on this.

I can understand both sides of the argument, and really dont know where to side.

a lot of people are. 76% of Americans favored the death penalty in 1991, that number most likely has grown. we can fix the system so that no mistakes are allowed. this is actually one topic with george bush that i agree with. I'm posting the first two paragraphs in my paper, please ingore the words in (parth's).


The death penalty is one of the most widely controversial topics in America history and around the world. Sixty-three countries banned the death penalty and more than forty other nations restricted it to wartime use or have not used it for more than 10 years and ninety other countries still use it. All of Western countries have done away with the death penalty except the US. The US and Turkey are the only NATO countries that use the death penalty. It is controversial in the US because of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. The eighth amendment states that cruel and unusual punishment is not to be inflicted. The fourteenth amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No states shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any states deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.” It is because of those amendments that some states have said that the death penalty is unconstitutional. Thirty-eight states have the death penalty.
Daniel Frank was the first person to be executed in Virginia in 1622 (World). By 1776, before the Declaration of Independence was written, all of the thirteen colonies executed people for arson, piracy, treason, murder, burglary, robbery, rape, horse-stealing, slave rebellion and counterfeiting (World). As our founding fathers were writing the Bill of Rights at the first Congress in New York City, Federal Hall 1790, Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin wanted to abolish executions (US). Many of those involved in the ratification of the eighth amendment hoped to eliminate capital punishment for all but the most serious of crimes, such as murder (US). We have evolved from having people burn at the stake to William Kemmeler being the first to die in the electric chair in New York City in 1890 to lethal injection in beginning in 1977 as the primary method of execution in most states today. (World). Since that time, federal judges in some states has declared the death penalty unconstitutional in those states. The Supreme Court has declared the death penalty unconstitutional but always reverses their decisions a few years later. Thirty-eight states have the death penalty with only a few states using it in the past decade. The states that execute the most people are California, Texas and Florida (US). Most of the northern states do not have the death penalty and most of the southern states do.

http://closeup.org/punish.htm history of the death penalty in America with soem links

I take Ethics so I have to write this paper, 3 Article Reviews every other week on any ethical issue. A little off topic but did you hear about the gay beaten death in Cali.

 

[darthdarrel]

I am ALL FOR THE DEATH penalty!
I say frie the creeps! I also think they should limit the amount of apeals.

 

[no2apprentice]

Just an interesting sidenote, for those who are against the death penalty for religious beliefs...

My wife visits Christian websites, mostly leftbehind.com, and has read discussions on this topic. Several people on the site have noted that while one of the Ten Commandments is "Thou shalt not kill", the correct translation from the hebrew is "Thou shalt not murder." This explains how in the Jewish law, it would allow the death penalty in certain crimes, and not violate the Ten Commandments. It also explains how God could send out the nation of Israel to kill their enemies in battle.

Now, I am by no means a biblical scholar in hebrew, and neither is my wife, and we don't know if this information is accurate, so if you want to know more, feel free to do your own research.

Not meaning to start any trouble, but sometimes our society just amazes me. The ACLU is against the death penalty, but at the same time they are all for the killing of unborn children. Chilling paradox.

 

[CmdrTostada]

Originally posted by FutureCEO
nor shall any states deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law;

They have no argument with the 14th amendment, because it says without due process of law. So that means if a person is found guilty by a jury of its peers, the state can, under the 14th amendment sentence him to death. ( But it can be interpreted in other ways, that is just my interpretation)
Dont even get me started on the ACLU, I got an offer to join them, and it personally offended my character by just getting that letter, because I believe the ACLU is racist.

 

[Stellajack]

Originally posted by Tramp
I'm for the death penalty in any murder case with "depraved indifference" to the victim and only if guilt can be PROVEN beyond a reasonable doubt.

SAME HERE Tramp! Beyond a REASONABLE DOUBT still remains the standard!

We should be careful when we present God's viewpoint on the death penalty as one of unfairness. Afterall, He was the originator of the death penalty. NOT for punishment , BUT for protection of the society which He chose to identify with. It's not an easy issue to deal with because it leaves proponents AND opponents open to criticism, but the Death Penalty is for the LIVING (giving victims' families justice, security, closure).

The Death Penalty is not the crime here. The crime would be to ignore or trivialize the effect that one person's contempt for life has on the remainder of society. Still, each of us must find our own stand on this death issue.

PEACE.

 

[NoBody]

The death penalty is becoming a way of life in this country (USA).

 

[The Mom]

It's interesting to note that the increased "popularity" of the death penalty among US residents seems to coincide with the increase in media coverage. As people read and see accounts of particularly brutal crimes, they become more accepting of harsher punishment.

I suppose the question goes back to the core purpose of our justice system. If it is punishment, then capital punishment makes sense.

If it's revenge, it also makes sense.If someone I love were brutally murdered, I would want the person responsible dead. Heck, I want "revenge" if I see someone else's child murdered,never mind my own!

If it's a deterrent, I'm not so sure it's effective, except for that particular individual. Certainly, he or she will never kill again! However, other continue to kill without much thought about the consequences.

If it's rehabilitation, the death penalty doesn't make sense; it assumes that rehabilitation is impossible. If rehabilitation is possible, the question becomes, rehabilitated to what? If someone has been a "criminal" since childhood, that's not likely to change. Therefore, he/she will be right where he/she was before prison...a predator, if you will.

Granted, some people might be executed unfairly. A small percentage might even be "innocent." I'm always reminded of the Bob Marley line, "I shot the sheriff, but I did not kill the deputy!" Basically, he is lamenting the fact that he's being punished for the killing of the deputy.

And yes, I have also been in Sunday School discussions, etc about the murder vs kill translation. It's obvious that capital punishment was common throughout the bible, with God's "permission."

The question then becomes, do we risk taking an innocent life to protect society as a whole? That is a question that every society has and will continue to wrestle with forever. The pendulum will continue to swing back and forth, depending upon the actions of it's members.

We give immunizations to our children, with the full knowledge that some will be injured or killed, but do it for the greater good of all. Should we feel guilty about doing the same thing to protect the morally healthy from the criminal predators?

 

[Debbie]

this has been so civil!:sohappy:
While I don't feel every convicted criminal should be up for the death penalty; I do feel those like the one I cited earlier should be up for it. There wasn't a doubt he did it; he shot her in front of all of her co-workers, in the parking lot of their workplace. He doesn't deserve something so nice as jail and what goes with it.
Should the sniper in DC get caught red handed; I think he should be up for it.
Should someone be arrested, tried, and convicted for killing the intern in DC (name escapes me), I wouldn't be for it unless he confessed. The case would probably be so circumstancial (spell?).

 

[no2apprentice]

Originally posted by The Mom
The question then becomes, do we risk taking an innocent life to protect society as a whole? That is a question that every society has and will continue to wrestle with forever. The pendulum will continue to swing back and forth, depending upon the actions of it's members.

True, but in our society, the pendulum is based not so much on it's members, but the decision of the high courts of each state and of the nation. The members of those courts have the power to move that pendulum. I've always wondered if this system of the courts is a true representation of the people, since the high judges are appointed by presidents and governors. True, the presidents and governors are elected, but their decisions of who is appointed lasts for years to come. Even if the opinion of the people change, the opinion of the high courts may not.