Death Penalty Question - Personally Split.?
832462
I totally agree. Sometimes i think maybe it would be good to make them sit their whole life and rot . If i had my choice, i would make the person stay alive so every day they can think about the choice they made! The death penalty seems to be a cop out. But others days my opinion changes...
943456
yes absoloutly i think anybody that takes another life for any reason should be given capital punishment. good luck and god bless and happy holidays.
1087557
I'd address three topics:\n\n1.Is it justified (eg. eye for an eye, revenge Vs rehabilitation, rights of the victim and their family, risk of miscarriage etc)\n2.Is it effective (eg. is it a deterent, does it make better societies, is it cheaper than permanent incarceration etc)\n3.Is it legal (eg. is it a cruel and unusual punishment, the position of international law, etc)\n\nYou've probably been asked the US/UK part because we are fairly similar societies with a largely common ancestry\nand tradition, but the UK abolished the death penalty whilst much of the US still uses it.  You can go two ways on this - \n1. the US is a much younger society still in a vigourous development phase facing the challenges of it's huge size and diversity so frontier justice is still appropriate (similar claims for China by the way, the other big executor).  when the UK was trying to hold a huge empire together it executed loads of people too.\n2. the existence in the US of a more fundemental christianity gives people a different perspective on life (and death) from the broadly humanist (post christian) views in Europe (including the UK) where morality is more personal and less something learned from religion.  Religious Europe was a very bloody place indeed for hundreds of years.\n\nHope this helps, BTW my opinion is that it is as morally justifiable as war.  I really don't want to have to do it, but sometimes I might have to protect my family and society.  Right now I think both our societies could live without capital punishment, and therefore should - but that could change.
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.
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?
508229
It's the death penalty.
368916
Wholeheartedly. I think we should have a stupid box that we can put all of the stupid people in and then burn them all. (j/p i know that's not feasible...) The death penalty is a necessary evil, and i support it.
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...
919897
pro/con of death penalty
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.
737906
The wording of your question is a little confusing, which might be why people (like me) are going off on a tangent instead of answering it.\n\nAre you asking if the death penalty is just? Or are you asking if a society has to have the death penalty in order to be a just society? Or are you asking if the only just means of taking a life in society is by death penalty (as opposed to vigilantism perhaps)?\n\nReally, I think the most important questions are what purpose does the death penalty serve, is it a worthy purpose, and how well does it serve that purpose? The following questions, regarding possible purposes for the death penalty, are from the article referenced below:\n\n"-- Is the purpose of the death penalty to remove from society someone who would cause more harm? \n\n-- Is the purpose to remove from society someone who is incapable of rehabilitation? \n\n-- Is the purpose of the death penalty to deter others from committing murder? \n\n-- Is the purpose of the death penalty to punish the criminal? \n\n-- Is the purpose of the death penalty to take retribution on behalf of the victim?"\n\nInstead of arguing emotionally over the issue, I think it would serve us better to ask ourselves what it is we're trying to accomplish, whether those objectives are truly appropriate, and then try to measure in dispassionate and objective ways whether capital punishment really meets those objectives. In other words, let's apply a little rational reflection to this issue instead of operating from that reptilian part of our brain that screams, "Bad guys must die! Me caveman!"
421249
I'm not totally opposed to the idea, but you gotta remember that in the old days, these punishments were meted out on site and without the benefit of "interference" from an impartial judicial system.  While "eye for an eye" would certainly cause some criminals to take a closer look at their actions, it would still have to be administered carefully and minimally, much in the way the death penalty is handled today.
741820
The problem is our judicial system is very flawed.  There are many innocent people in jail, and guilty ones in the street.  I agree some people are given lighter sentences than what they deserve and others harsher than they deserve.  But our system is what it is, if you don't plan on getting out there and trying to make a change then there is no point in complaining about it.  I am back and forth on the issue of the death penalty,  but to answer your question, yes there should be certain criteria for sending someone to deathrow.   There should be certain regulations.  But every crime is different, and until it happens to you or someone in your family it is hard to say.  and that goes for being the defendant or the victim.  it is hard on both families.
188181
Well if that was her only infraction I'm sure the death penalty wouldn't have come into play, i like your question as you are canceling one evil with another whats the downside! But the sad truth is we cannot condone a murder\neven if he deserved it if we did vigilante justice would go rampant and unchecked and you could never get your day in court, face it no matter who gets killed someone will grieve\nand feel a need for justice.
549946
I would mention how permanent a penalty it is.  When a mistake is made, there's no way to correct it.  With DNA evidence now freeing falsely convicted people almost weekly, it's clear that the system is flawed.  Even DNA evidence that clears an executed person can't bring him back from the dead.  Research the "Innocence Project," and you should get some powerful arguments for abolishing (or at least modifying) the death penalty.
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.
747872
Yes i believe it is justified for i believe that if someone takes a life they deserve to have their life taken. To think of all the rapists, murders, and etc. people their are in the world, it is not right to have them remain alive if all they do in the world is take the people we love from the world.\n\nIt costs an average of $20,000 to imprison someone for 1 year,\nto think that a person guilty of first degree murder is sentenced to 25 years in prison... thats approx. 500k \n\nSo unless u think its okay to forgive someone for their sins they commited, for the lives they have taken and the lives they have ruined. then dont enforce the death penalty. \n\nBut i believe in the death penalty because i believe that is the only real justice that is even justified in this world... because all the murders and rapists out there are still alive and will be out in about a decade to commit the same crimes.