What are your opinions on capital punishment?
102069
People could talk about that for hours. I'll try to be short and to go to the essential.\n\nThe right to live is a basic Human Right, no matter who you are and what you've done.\n\nAlmost all democratic countries in the world agree with that, except very few of them (no comment on them!).
695904
I don't know if it is solely my Christianity that has my husband and I oppose capital punishment, but we both do. \nWhen do two wrongs make a right? Why does one person have the right to end another life?\n\nmy husband lost his wife and 8 year old son to  a drunk driver, and his mother was murdered 6 months later by her second husband. Neither man did one day in jail. Was that right? No. \n\nDo we have the rights to say they should have been executed? No. punished? Yes. \n\nForgiveness is a mighty hard thing sometimes. Only by the grace of God can we forgive in such cases. That is where we are, thanks for the opportunity to share...
1151083
i think to make murder punishable by murder is a joke, what is the difference between the criminal and the law if both are commiting murder. also if i were facing life in prison i would much prefer the death penalty and im sure many people on death row see it that way, fortunatly in my country we abolished the death penalty long ago and now killers have to live with their nightmares for the rest of their lives rather than getting an easy way out. we are supposed to be promoting modern liberal western values to the rest of the world but it is not very good when the wests leading nation itself cannot follow these ideals
651785
I don't really like the death penalty but when a grown man rapes and or murders a child,they do not deserve to live.And I know we aren't to judge others and that to God all sin is bad,But that's just it,we aren't God and so therefore we can judge and execute those ba******!!!!!
662966
I don't believe in the death penalty.\nToo many Innocent people have been executed for something they did not do.There are two infamous cases here in Australia where the murderers/rapist were caught red handed within days and admitted they did it,both these individuals have tried to commit suicide while in prison,their crimes against another human being were horrendous and had a great impact on our country not just the state in which it took place,in a case like this I think the judge should be able to in-force the death penalty.\nSome people still think the last man hanged here was innocent and it was done for political reasons.
219065
I think public violence of all sorts desensitizes people to the immensity of death.\n   Executions were televised in my country a few years ago, and I had the bad luck to turn the TV on when some were taking place. I will never forget the faces of those men about to die. Criminals, yes, evil by nature, perhaps. But what impressed me the most were the faces of those about to do the killing: the coldness, the total lack of concern, the machine-like effectiveness.\n   I do remember one woman, member of a firing squad, who burst in tears after the shooting. May God bless her.\n   It didn't stop crime. Our crime rates are on the rise, death penalty or not. But what really, really disturbs me is how used we have gotten to watch people die: the first time I watched a lynching on TV I was horrified. By the fifth repeat I was merely bored into "Oh, no, not again". I wish that is not what you want.\n   I believe that crime should be punished, and that dangerous criminals should be placed where they can do no more harm. But turning death into a show (and the ratings here were huge) demeans it, and us.
1144197
nope. i believe that all murderers should die. i dont wanna spend my tax dollars on their jail cell for longer than i have to. plus, what the criminals did was barbaric. shouldn't they get a barbaric punishment for what they did?
674676
Yes I agree with the death penalty. Life in prison is not a punishment for long term prisoners. Three meals a day, cable TV, no bills. They think it's a good life.
41734
I have gone both ways on different occasions, but I think I am ultimately against it.  I don't think it is a deterrent, like if a person has the mindset necessary for committing murder, they aren't thinking of the consequences and will commit murder anyway.  Also, many people get wrongly convicted and I shudder to think how many of them were sentenced to death.
32268
I am absolutely against the death penalty, in all cases, no matter what the offender did, who the victim is, and so on.\n\nWe punish murder because we think (as societies) that murdering is wrong. So, we cannot simply kill a person just because this person has killed! That is plain revenge, not justice! It is doing to them what we're criticising them for doing! Remember this: "Do as I tell, not as I do"?\n\nLeave alone killing other criminals, who aren't killers themselves. In that case, we're doing to the offender something much worse than what they did in the first place.\n\nAnd what about people who are innocent? What about the political use of the death penalty? What about the fact that most of the victims are black or Latinos, poor and powerless? Don't Anglo-Saxon, wealthy and powerful people commit crimes? And even if they didn't (which is not true), doesn't anybody wonder what makes poor people commit crimes, in the first place?\n\nAs long as the death penalty is legal anywhere in the world, we're no better than animals. At least, they only kill when they're hungry. Humans make the state kill on our behalf, only because we are a very cowardly species.
273211
Justice and sentences are a complex subject.\nTo answer in a quick way, I'd just say I'm totally against death penalty, no matter the crime, no matter the death. Matter of principles, education and logic.\nSaying "they canno't be rehabilitated" is as stupid as saying "they will never do it again". It really depends on the person and on its personal case... but "Yes" some can be rehabilitated.\nOne last sad point: the USA carceral system and culture do not foster good rehabilitations. That has sad consequences: they go on with their troubles and the ones who believe that they canno't be rehabilitated think being right!!
788159
Capital punishment is premeditated killing.\nAs a Christian I am morally opposed to killing regardless of the situation.\nI also believe it is morally wrong to force me to pay for the state to kill people.\nOK, it's only 3 sentences.....so kill me.
579630
I believe in life in prison without parole for those criminals that have proven to be an ongoing threat to society.  I think it costs us far more to execute them than it would for us to keep them locked up forever.  However, the death sentence does not bother me.  I believe there are people who cannot be changed and that they are evil.  The sex of the person does not enter into it for me.  Would I carry out the execution?  I would not take the job.  If I were forced to do it, or the person would go free?  I would execute them.  My fear in letting them go would be that they would kill again or harm a child.  I couldn't live with that on my conscience.  Anyway I didn't sentence them to die.  I just carried out the sentence of the court.  Of course this answer is based on what I know of the courts of the U.S.A.  I would not carry out a death sentence in another country.  In some cases the sentence may have been handed out simply for being a Christian.
331796
I am for the death penalty.  Except that it has become a non-deterent because people spend years and years on death row.  Not only does that lose the intended impact...but it costs a fortune to keep someone on death row.\n\nI think they should get one appeal.  If they lose that appeal, they should be executed within 30 days.
1132558
I am in favour of a death penalty.  If you want to believe that a life sentence is going to teach a murderer anything, then YOU pay for it.  If you want to pay room and board for a prisoner for the rest of his/her life, you're welcome to try, but you have no right to ask someone else to do it.\nImprisonment means you and I are forced to take care of criminals, and for those in the habit of taking by force, what better life can you imagine?  Abolishment of the death penalty is every dishonest person's dream.  It's the path to a life of coercion with impunity.  It's become far too easy to forget about the victims.  What about their rights?  The issue of victim's rights also reveals the fact that many crimes have no victims... ask yourself why victimless crimes are illegal (after all, cops and judges need to look busy, don't they?)\nTo those who claim prisons are cheaper-- what planet are you on?  Keeping murderers and rapists in prisons is only cheaper than, what, keeping them in mansions?  Thanks to the INjustice system, we have a ridiculous number of innocent people doing time.  In a horribly misguided attempt to regulate business and morality, prisons are full of people guilty of illegal, but not immoral, acts: smoking pot, trading stocks at the wrong moment, selling sex, gambling, etc.\nThe real problem is confusing legality with morality.  If you kill someone, and it was NOT self-defence, you have forfeited your right to be alive.  That fact doesn't change from place to place, but laws do, obviously.  In some countries, you could be put to death for being gay or an atheist, but in those cases the executioners are the murderers.  Blaming wrongful executions on the death penalty is like blaming a shooting on the gun.  If we're going to save innocent lives, we have to fight the religions and governments that destroy those lives.\nUltimately, the real issue is not the concept of execution, but rather the abuse of law by the corrupt and the persecution of innocents by those who make -and enforce- laws.
452673
Capital punishment is simply the best law enforcement out there. Ask any country that has employed it. You'll find that their crime rates are MUCH lower than the USA's. This only applies if the nation is comfortable with it of course. \nOn the other hand, its immoral for a man to take another's life no matter what the situation since you are assuming a position of superiority when you do so and every man on the earth is equal. Despite its effectiveness, there are multiple other alternatives to it and capital punishment should not be a first choice.\n\nIts simply a matter of perspective in the end.The typical christian perspective goes against capital punishment and thats due to this christian country. \nThe simple truth is that its effective but at the same time, from a biased perspective, its barbaric, immoral, and there are better, though not as effective, solutions.
608775
Well personally I'm opposed to the death penalty for any reason...First off as a Christian I believe Jesus taught let he without sin cast the first stone...secondly in our criminal courts the rich can afford all the expert witnesses they need while the poor are being executed...sometimes innocent because they couldn't afford a great lawyer and expert witnesses