Do you believe in the death penalty?
351139
Not for you, even though you've stolen my heart. lol j/k!\nBut seriously, I do. Deep down inside I do, even though I worry a lot about the wrong people being executed.\nAs far as some people saying we shouldn't stoop down to their level, there is a great difference between us and them, even when we have to take their life;\nThey killed, for pleasure or hatred, usually no remorse.\nWe HAVE to kill, not because we want to, but because these people will not repent or turn from their ways, and will kill innocents again if they are let out.
80318
I have met executioners and they tend to be people who strongly believe they are carrying out one of their many job responsibilities.  They take no joy from it, but neither do they shy away from being part of the system's mechanism for the ultimate punishment.  I did not get the impression that the people with whom I met were psychopathic or sociopathic (as most other thrill-killers would be).\n\nTo put this answer in context, by the way, I am not generally in favor of the death penalty because I think our system of justice is far too imperfect for it to ever be fairly and equally meted out.
508229
It's the death penalty.
45251
Typically most liberals do not support the death penalty. Its OK to have views that differ from whatever political affiliation you have.
1014529
Absolutely.  There are only certain crimes that carry the death penalty and there are a number of reviews that take place before an execution takes place.  Once the person has been found guilty and the reviews have taken place, the punishment fits the crime.
55599
The short answer is that we live in a Democracy and death penalty laws are on the books because people (or their representatives) put them there.  There are usually four distinct groups of people involved and it cuts across party lines.  Large groups favor the death penalty and large groups oppose it for any number of good reasons.  Small groups who have lost someone to murder believe that the death penalty is "too good" for the perpetrator, but are not allowed to take the law into their own hands.  Small groups related to the murderer oppose the death penalty because of shame and the fact that they still love the perpetrator and find good excuses for him/her.\n\nOn top of all that, sensational murders committed by those who expect to escape punishment spur on society to support the death penalty.  Crimes against innocent children are particularly heinous.  And news that someone convicted of murder has been proven (by DNA tests?) to be innocent show the weaknesses in our judicial system.\n\nThe question really is not all that simple.  In New York state, the results of a close Governors race was likely determined on the death penalty issue.  The winner favored the penalty while the incumbent never used it based on personal beliefs.  Changing politics will always be involved.  Many will always feel that a barbaric murderer should know that he/she might face a barbaric fate.  And some feel that might save innocent lives.
59039
It depends on the judge or jury. I would be willing to bet you would be looking at life or the death penalty.
747930
Probably not.  Think about it from the criminal's pointy of view.  The death penalty is really a remote idea, because:\n\nA) The person needs to be apprehended (most criminals believe that they'll get away with whatever they're doing, so getting caught isn't an issue for them);\nB) Once caught, they need to be convicted.\nC) Once convicted, they need to be sentenced to death.\nD) once sentenced, they need to exhaust all appeals.\n\nSo, in reality, the threat of death is so remote that it probably doesn't serve as an effective deterrent for most criminals.
1152773
No, I do not.\n\nIf we had capitol punishment here in Britain we might already have executed a few people who were acquitted several years later.\nAlso, why is it assumed that capitol punishment is worse than life imprisonment (and I mean life). Some prisoners commit suicide in prison.\n\nAnother problem with capitol punishment is that the condemmed person's family probably suffer as much as they do.\n\nLeaving aside the religious arguament that "though shalt not kill)\nI do this, not because I do not believe in it, but because you could go on writing for ever about the morality of it.\n\nYou have to remember also, that the state is carrying out executions in cold blood. The murderer may have had some reason for doing what he did, no matter how twisted. Also, on a personal level, what does it say about the person/persons who are prepared to kill other people as part of their job, and no, it is not the same as the military doing it.\nPlease don't give me the response, "It's my duty" or, "somebody has to do it. You are operating on a personal level when you are doing a job.\n\nI find it particularly distasteful, when executions are turned into circuses, as in th US. If you have to execute people, I am sure that the state can be trusted to do the job without about two hundred and fifty Madam la Farges' looking on. At least the person should be allowed to die with some sort of dignity. Whist I am on this subject, let me also say that I am disgusted and appalled that some women seem have been directly involved in carrying out executions. Particularly because women tend to personalise things more than men. I have to wonder what their real motivation is, because it is nearly always men that are executed. Please don't give me "it's only a job" or equal opportunities stuff.\n\nFinally, I would like to set a little test for those who, from afar, think that they believe in capitol punishment.\nWould you be personally prepared to carry it out? Would you still believe in it if it was a member of your own family. Would you be prepared to carry it out yourself in those circumstances.It's easy letting someone else carry it out, particularly when you don't know the condemmed.\n\nThere aren't any good reasons for capitol punishment, except that it saves the cost of keeping the prisoner in jail.\n\nFinally, I am not a soppy liberal, I think that life should mean life.
1148421
I don't believe in capital punishment.  I think it's a much greater punishment to let a criminal rot in hellish prisons for endless years.  It's in no way a deterent for capital crimes.
837329
The Death Penalty is a harsh sentence, the harshest that society can give, but I support it.\n\nIf a person killed 15 people then how can his one death pay back that crime?  Why don’t we kill him 15 times!  You can medically induce a heart attack and then bring them back with a defibrillator.  Of course this would be cruel and unusual punishment and it would be illegal according to the 5th amendment.  The Death Penalty has been challenged several times in the Supreme Court on the grounds of it being cruel and unusual punishment, it has been upheld each time.\n\nI have mixed feelings about the Death Penalty.  People claim that it isn’t a determent to crime; people still murder each other.  I also think that that it is used too often, my state is famous for it.\n\nHowever, the Death Penalty does have some advantages.  It is the ultimate determent for the murder.  John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer, will never kill anyone again.  Even if he was given a life term for each person that we know he killed, he would still be a threat to his guards and other prisoners.  What’s to stop him from committing murder in prison?  Are you going to give him another life term?  That wouldn’t be a determent.  And if he should escape then he will go back to murdering people again.  However, if the Death Penalty was a possibility then he might think twice about committing another murder.  We can’t ask him if this is so, because he is dead, and I think that is a good thing.\n\nCharles Manson is as crazy as ever.  He built a “family” and inspired them to go on a killing spree.  Charles Manson wants to do nothing more than to incite hate and violence.  To that end he has had a tattoo or brand of the Nazi symbol placed on his forehead.  If he escapes from prison there is no doubt what he will do.  He will start another “family” and send it too off on a killing spree.  Manson has even said he will do this.  If he were dead, killed by the Death Penalty, then that wouldn’t be a threat.  As it is we have to keep him locked up for the rest of his natural life.  He is a threat to his guards, other prisoners, and a continuing threat to society itself.  We can’t kill him though because he didn’t go on the killing spree himself, he only inspired it.  Meanwhile I have to spend my tax money to help support him for the rest of his natural life.\n\nThe Death Penalty has its advantages.  It is something to hold over prisoners.  If they murder another prisoner then they could have to face it.  It also prevents us from supporting a prisoner for the rest of his life.  That’s a cruel fact, but true.  It will also prevent a murderer from ever killing again.\n\nWhen the Death Penalty is applied it should be done so only as a last resort and under special circumstances.\n--  First a higher standard of guilt should be met.  The jury must be sure, beyond a SHADOW of doubt that the accused is actually guilty.  A murderer can be convicted if beyond a REASONABLE doubt the jury considers him guilty.  A higher standard should be held for the application of the death penalty.  Just how stringent that standard should be is up to the Judge’s instructions, and the jury.  Also our legal system is based on the idea that we would rather not convict 100 people, if that means convicting 1 innocent person.\n--  Second the person should be considered a continuing threat to society.  A man who finds out his wife is cheating on him and then kills her, may not be a continuing threat to society (unless he gets married again).  He may be unstable and should be sentenced to a long prison term, but I don’t think he should be subject to the Death Penalty.  The ultimate penalty should only be applied only to people who are likely to murder again; preferable only to people who have committed multiple murders and proved that they will kill again, if given the chance.\nIn some states there is another condition that can cause the Death Penalty to apply.  In New York it is call
759325
Not me. The death penalty is the Hammurabi code in action. If you kill a criminal because he kill a innocent them the government is part of the criminal system. Following this theory, for example, is a drunk driver kill a family in a crash accident I believe the penalty will be killing the drunk driver family.Or not?\nThe EU and other civilized countries banned such practices.
816413
I don't support the death penalty. But I've never lived through what the Iraqi people have lived through.\n\nThis is an Iraqi decision to make, and I have no doubt they'll want him dead. Can I really blame these people, who've endured unmentionable cruelty at the hands of Saddam, and now endure such hardship at the hands of both foreign invaders and civil militants, for wanting some type of retribution, some kind of hope? If Saddam's death gives them some hope, then let it be so.
413975
I have always wondered that..\n\nI think that people who are going to be put to death for murder, should be done so only by the victim(s) families or loved ones, then I would be able to see some sort of justice out of that
1185925
well, still believes that no matter what a person did, no one has the right to take his life away from him. life was god-given and only god can take that away... putting a person in jail is reasonable enough so that he wont be able to do crimes anymore, but death sentence? i dont think so.. thats simply barbaric...
834398
I would for me.... but that's not the point of Capital punishment.... Retribution and justice  are the point. Any determent is just a plus. And one thing is absolutely sure.... the person upon which Capital Punishment is carried out *never* commits a crime again. It is the only punishment with a zero recidivism
735661
I'm for death penalty because it's a good preventive force, knowing that punishment is death penalty DOES stop people from committing a crime; convicted people live on the taxes of citizens, I hate the idea of thinking that some raper or murderer lives on my taxes; all the money spent on criminals could be spent on education, health care