What do you think of the Death Penalty?

[No1]

I will never find it in my heart to condone the death penalty. I think the fact that it still exists in the United States is a blight on our society. Without going on my moral speech, from a pure efficiency standpoint, how quick do we forget: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/15/carlos-texas-innocent-man-death

A few years ago, Antonin Scalia, one of the nine justices on the US supreme court, made a bold statement. There has not been, he said, "a single case – not one – in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred … the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops."

Scalia may have to eat his words. It is now clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit, and his name – Carlos DeLuna – is being shouted from the rooftops of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. The august journal has cleared its entire spring edition, doubling its normal size to 436 pages, to carry an extraordinary investigation by a Columbia law school professor and his students.

The book sets out in precise and shocking detail how an innocent man was sent to his death on 8 December 1989, courtesy of the state ofTexas. Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution, is based on six years of intensive detective work by Professor James Liebman and 12 students.

 

[Brown_Pride]

I will never find it in my heart to condone the death penalty. I think the fact that it still exists in the United States is a blight on our society. Without going on my moral speech, from a pure efficiency standpoint, how quick do we forget: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/15/carlos-texas-innocent-man-death

Sadly this will be the first and last time most people see this name.

And Scalia wont say shyt, if anything he'll go on about "breaking a few eggs" though hopefully a little less crude.

 

[Jello Biafra]

I have very little faith in the fairness of the American judicial process with the way the deck is stacked in the favor of the state, the incestuous nature of most judge/prosecutor relationships, how most prosecutors are only interested in winning not justice, and how police are only interested in closing cases not finding the truth.
So, no I am not in favor of the death penalty at all because that is a very final punishment to mete out based on such a flawed system.

 

[Blackking]

only more expensive because we are doing it wrong. if someone molest a child - and we can prove it... or they admit to it. Just shoot them or place them in gen pop w no protection.... . How is that not cost effective?

minorities should be immune to DP. (black hispanics, black, asians, non-white hispanics, arabs)

our prisons are not a deterrent... so why are we on here pointing out that the death penalty is not a deterrent? I guess we should get rid of prisons as well.

We can't discuss any of these things with private money in our prisons and discrimination in the justice system. We need to fix that first.

 

[unit321]

Let's just say I loved the movie "Judge Dredd" with Sylvester Stallone, not the new one.

 

[ill]

I support it but it's something that I wrestle with. I can definitely understand why it's needed but the fact that the state has killed innocent people is downright frightening.

That being said, I don't think it should only apply to murders. Anyone thats rapes/molests infants and children should be put to death. Anyone that holds a position of vested authority and abuses it at a severe detriment to the people under their responsibility should be put to death. A great example of the last sentence is that judge that put away all those kids while getting money from private juvenile facilities to do so. It would need to be hammered out in fine detail.

This is my viewpoint as well. Only thing I would add is that for certain situations, I would prefer the a$$hole spend 60 years rotting away in prison than taking the easy way out in the chair.

 

[Brown Ant]

only more expensive because we are doing it wrong. if someone molest a child - and we can prove it... or they admit to it. Just shoot them or place them in gen pop w no protection.... . How is that not cost effective?

minorities should be immune to DP. (black hispanics, black, asians, non-white hispanics, arabs)

our prisons are not a deterrent... so why are we on here pointing out that the death penalty is not a deterrent? I guess we should get rid of prisons as well.

We can't discuss any of these things with private money in our prisons and discrimination in the justice system. We need to fix that first.

And you say you aren't racist.

 

[ADevilYouKhow]

amoral
mostly applied to minorities
cost
not an effective deterrent

its wrong all around

 

[Prince.Skeletor]

It's wrong and the worst part of the death penalty is the part that nobody mentioned yet

 

[Liu Kang]

Vigourously against it.
As a nation, as a state, it will always be better to have free/alive culprits than jailed/dead innocents, that's democracy. And even if it's a theoritical point, it's a critical one. I'm more for a true "life" sentence without parole when the culprit is sure to die in jail.
As a person, it's obvious it's different. If a closed one were to be murdered, I, like everybody on earth, would want the murderer dead. And it would be a thought that only a strong, great will could overrule. But I'm no ruler, I'm no person in charge, I'm no authority so I have the right for my passions to prevail, I have the right to think that way.

It makes me sick to my stomach to hear about pedophiles or rapists. I despise them more than murderers.
But should we kill them ? No. Should we kill murderers ? No. Because I think that no state should kill citizens unless it's war-related. We must try and jail people, not kill them.

 

[Blackking]

And you say you aren't racist.

you have a limited understanding of life, if you can't understand y i said that.

 

[rapbeats]

I support it but it's something that I wrestle with. I can definitely understand why it's needed but the fact that the state has killed innocent people is downright frightening.

That being said, I don't think it should only apply to murders. Anyone thats rapes/molests infants and children should be put to death. Anyone that holds a position of vested authority and abuses it at a severe detriment to the people under their responsibility should be put to death. A great example of the last sentence is that judge that put away all those kids while getting money from private juvenile facilities to do so. It would need to be hammered out in fine detail.

so raping a woman isnt all that bad?

and i'm not talking about some he say she say... well i came on to him but not like that...type of rape. i'm not talking about you're at tysons room at 4am trying to play scrabble. i'm talking about jumping a chick and taking the goods. jumping thru her bedroom window and taking it, catching her slipping on a night jog and taking it. rape that cant be refuted.

you have one male who is the predator and who is multiple times as strong as the prey(the woman)

with kiddy diddlers, you have usually a male predator who is multiple times as strong as the prey(the child)

why do we act like kiddy diddlers can get the DP, but regular unrefuted rapist that rape women cant?

 

[rapbeats]

I all for the death penalty for murder. As long as the person is found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt got to go, got to go.

It would be a more effective deterrent if the punishment was handled swifter.

true but a swifter pulling of the plug would leave no time for innocent people to be found innocent from DNA evidence years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exonerated_death_row_inmates
^a list of all the exonerated folks on D.row below. scroll down to the US of A.



EXONERATED AFTER EXECUTION: 12 MEN (AND ONE WOMAN) FOUND INNOCENT AFTER BEING PUT TO DEATH
http://madamenoire.com/73840/exoner...oman-found-innocent-after-being-put-to-death/

 

[Type Username Here]

so raping a woman isnt all that bad?

Where did you get that from? It's definitely a horrific crime, but it isn't AS bad as killing/raping infants and children. Now, if it's a serial rapist then for sure we can debate terminating that filth's life.

and i'm not talking about some he say she say... well i came on to him but not like that...type of rape. i'm not talking about you're at tysons room at 4am trying to play scrabble. i'm talking about jumping a chick and taking the goods. jumping thru her bedroom window and taking it, catching her slipping on a night jog and taking it. rape that cant be refuted.

you have one male who is the predator and who is multiple times as strong as the prey(the woman)

with kiddy diddlers, you have usually a male predator who is multiple times as strong as the prey(the child)

why do we act like kiddy diddlers can get the DP, but regular unrefuted rapist that rape women cant?

Bro, if you can't distinguish between an adult woman and an infant/small child I don't know what to say. Both are horrific crimes, but one is on a whole other level.

 

[acri1]

Can you source the two above? Not saying you're lying but I'd like to read something concrete. I can't seem to find any legit sources for this. Thanks.

http://www.nbcrightnow.com/story/15519792/what-costs-more-the-death

It's impossible to be exact because there are a lot unpredictable circumstances and costs that no state agency has calculated.

However, from our calculations, the death penalty from beginning to end would have cost more, but just how much more is hard to say.

While the death penalty is the most final of punishments it's far from a quick process. And using a 2006 study by the state bar association the costs add up. For example

"A defendant facing the death penalty is entitled to two attorneys, of course the costs for defense attorneys are higher", says Joann Moore, Director of the Washington State Office of Public Defense.

Add prosecution costs, defense costs, then appeals and the cost is over one million dollars more than non-death penalty cases.

That's for Washington, but it's pretty much been found in every study (in states that have capital punishment) that it ultimately costs taxpayers more to put someone to death


http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyph...and-taxes-the-real-cost-of-the-death-penalty/

While the actual execution costs taxpayers fairly little (the drugs used in Texas run a mere $83), the costs associated with death penalty trials and the resulting incarceration are disproportionately higher.

Citing Richard C. Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, Fox reported that studies have “uniformly and conservatively shown that a death-penalty trial costs $1 million more than one in which prosecutors seek life without parole.”

A Urban Institute study (downloads as a pdf) found that “n Maryland death penalty cases cost 3 times more than non-death penalty cases, or $3 million for a single case” while a 2004 Report from Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research that claimed “n Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.”

The story is the same in North Carolina. A 2010 Duke University study found that taxpayers in the Tarheel State could save $11 million a year by substituting life in prison for the death penalty.

The numbers are even more dramatic in Garden State. Prior to the abolishing the death penalty in the state, a report by New Jersey Policy Perspectives found that “New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one.”