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The death penalty seems almost too good for some of the folks who've been subjected to it's completion. On the other hand, it creates a two tier view of murder, one being the state view and the other covers the criminal aspects. So, murder when conducted by the state connotes the righteousness of an act we normally consider to be morally offensive. It's either wrong to murder a person, or, it isn't.
This is where the question becomes a moral quagmire of conflicting principles for most people, for me it is a matter of being consistent, murder is, in my opinion, wrong, whether the state does it, or a criminal. Warfare is another case of sanctioned murder, and the fact that we as a nation engage in a ton of murder through the penal institution scenario or war allows for a mindset that encourages the notion of murder as a solution to problems.
Once we buy into the notion of murder being the solution to anything, or, that it can be construed as a righteous thing, then we have reduced the moral opposition to it, leaving only the question of who will be properly sanctioned to kill. Gangsters have adapted murder as their number one form of retribution, murder has been their choice of solutions to their turf control problems.
The cost of incarceration is small when compared to the moral burden of murdering an innocent person. Studies have shown that money can buy a better defense for a person charged with murder, and because of that lopsided situation we do in fact have a judicial system that routinely kills the poverty level defendants while allowing the well off murderer to walk free. Imagine the tremendous burden the executioner has when carrying out such work, no one should have the murdering of others as a condition of employment.
So they never have the chance to murder again? You do realize sentences are commuted, prisoners escape, right?
Sadly, no. BUT, getting rid of as many bad people as we can? YES.
Really? I don't remember the murder done to protest capital punishment...
Okay, here's something to chew on. Whenever some murderer kills innocent people with a firearm, there are those who decry their use of such a weapon, and call for it to be banned. They use the mantra, "if it saves just one life." Okay, executing these killers will save their future victims.
Unless the executed person is not the killer of course...
Imagine the tremendous burden the executioner has when carrying out such work, no one should have the murdering of others as a condition of employment.
Imagine yourself in Saudi Arabia ... it is a condition of employment.
Now to the rest of your post ... I've said it before ... Adolf, Benito, Idi, Pol Pot, and to add some current POS, Saddam and Ussama. Any thoughts on these thugs? Don't I wish I had to carry "the tremendous burden" of snuffing all that trash. Lord have mercy and "O Happy Day".
On the middle school debate team, we debated capital punishment. As anyone familiar with debate knows, one must research and then attempt to successfully argue both for and against both sides of the topic.
For the next 20 years or so, I was in favor of the death penalty.
But my thinking has changed as more information has come out about wrongful convictions, the racial disparities in terms of how the DP is applied, the increased use of DNA in exonerations, the fallibility of eye witness reports, corruption in police departments and prosecutors' offices, the high financial costs to society in DP cases, the stress on the victim's family when they have to go through decades of appeals in DP cases, the fact that there is no true evidence that its a deterrent, the traumatic effects on the people who conduct the actual executions, and finally my own belief that the government should not have a right to kill its own citizens.
I used to be totally for executions. Hang 'em high. As far as I was concerned, the only problem with the death penalty was that it wasn't carried out soon enough and convicted parties would have years before 'justice was served.'
But somewhere along the lines, I realized that it is not in my place, the public's place, the victim's family's place, or a judge's to make a decision to kill another human being. No doubt the vast majority of these people are vile individuals and deserve the worst of the worst. And there are some truly depraved ones that make my blood boil..... but it is simply not a decision that can be made by another human to kill another. Lock them up for life. Karma/God/Flying Spaghetti Monster will get them in the end.
And what does it really bring the public, victims, etc.? Satisfaction? Relief? I'm not saying a victim or their loved ones has to forgive- that's their decision. But what purpose, other than vengeance, does it really serve? Certainly not justice. All it does is foster more negativity and strife.
Absolutely right. Society, by and large, is vengeful, and the death penalty exists as a means to make your average Joe feel like real justice has been delivered because anything less just won't do. Of course, in reality, the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime - it will certainly stop that person from doing whatever they did again, but it does nothing to prevent others from doing it.
It's about time the prison systems of certain countries stopped turning people into hardened criminals, and started making criminals productive members of society, as they do in more civilised places that bid farewell to the death penalty many years ago. Will that happen? Not likely - as I'd expect the gun-touting Republicans in Texas to kick up a right fuss.
Well put. It's another factor that bothers me about the death penalty -- that it usually seems like more about revenge than justice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by O.A.Bachlow Killing bad people does not get rid of all the bad people.
Sadly, no. BUT, getting rid of as many bad people as we can? YES.
But what if I think YOU are a "bad" person?
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