pro-capital punishment or anti-capital punishment? (interstate, drug, highway, crime)

[TXboomerang]

Originally Posted by saganista

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...

Good, I'm all for that. We can model our laws like many societies who have used capital punishment for the basis of eliminating threats from society.

Neither has any victim of murder. Or anyone killed in a plane crash.

But many murders, rapist and child predators are released right back onto our streets to strike again. Maybe you like that program better.

[StillwaterTownie]

Exercising capitol punishment only sinks the moral level of the state down to the murderer's.

[TXboomerang]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Exercising capitol punishment only sinks the moral level of the state down to the murderer's.

Tell that to someone whose child was raped and murdered by a child predator that has been released twice from prison.

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by tnbound2day

Tell that to someone whose child was raped and murdered by a child predator that has been released twice from prison.

The release from prison is the problem.

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

Originally Posted by tnbound2day

Tell that to someone whose child was raped and murdered by a child predator that has been released twice from prison.

Are you advocating the death penalty for child predators? Otherwise your argument is for tougher sentencing. The death penalty has nothing to do with it.

[TXboomerang]

Originally Posted by CarolinaBredChicagoan

Are you advocating the death penalty for child predators? Otherwise your argument is for tougher sentencing. The death penalty has nothing to do with it.

A second offense, yes.

[TXboomerang]

Comparing life in prison to the death penalty, does anyone here besides me think its not that great of an alternative? I'm all for giving a criminal plenty of time for appeals since their life is on the line. But once a certain number of appeals have been reached, I say stop wasting time and money. It turns into throwin a bunch of sh*t at the wall to see if any will stick. Once they have not chance for parole, being a rat in a cage for a few decades while enduring a$$ rape and beatings from time to time doesn't seem like that much better of a choice.

[TriMT7]

I'm not morally against the death penalty. Unfortunately, because mistakes do happen, I'd view the injustice of putting to death an innocent man as 100X more unfair than not killing a murderer. So that's why I'm against the death penalty "in practice" but not "in idea."

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by stephonee3

Pro-capital punishment or anti-capital punishment, that is the quesion?
Death penalty or no death penalty???

i want to hear everyones ideas for both sides!

and personaly i am pro-capital punishment (if anyone wanted to know)!

Mostly anti for various reasons.

1. It doesn't deter other criminals. DP states have overall higher violent crime rates than states without the DP.
2. It's more expensive to administer than a life sentence when you count the cost of a capital trial, the appeals process, and the overhead of maintaining a separate death row facility.
3. It is unevenly and unequally applied to poor people; there are hardly any wealthy people on death row even though wealthy people are from time to time convicted of murder, which tells me that being poor greatly enhances your chances of being sentenced to death. That isn't right.
4. It is irreversible; you can't un-kill someone, but you can release someone from prison after 1, 5, 10, 20+ years if they were wrongfully convicted.
5. I believe we are executing innocent people. The appeals process, after a certain point, no longer allows evidence of innocence...it only concerns itself with procedural errors. That is jaw-dropping.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

I'm not morally against the death penalty. Unfortunately, because mistakes do happen, I'd view the injustice of putting to death an innocent man as 100X more unfair than not killing a murderer.

To me it's an unacceptable risk...and I'm convinced it has happened and continues to happen. Just put yourself in that guy's shoes...imagine the sheer horror.