"Capital Punishment" (death, crime, Nebraska, abortion)

[QuakerBaker]

I oppose the death penalty. I am generally speaking Pro-Life on the death penalty (and abortion).

In the Book of John chapter 8, people who wanted to hurt Jesus caught a woman committing adultery for which the punishment was death. They brought her to Jesus and said that they had to kill her and said what do you say Jesus as a trap to also have grounds to execute Jesus. Jesus was silent and drew on the ground.

When they demanded that Jesus give an answer to her fate, Jesus said "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Jesus then crouched back down and kept drawing in the ground. The mob went away and finally Jesus spoke again....and said to the lady...."Go now and leave your life of sin."

Notice how Jesus preaches Rehabilitation there.

.....and how they wanted to kill Jesus as well.....a cycle of violence if you will.


Why do we punish people?

1. Retribution, but an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

2. Restitution, but what do we truly gain by killing some one?

3. Rehabilitation, to make them better people and to give them a chance to save their soul.

4. Order, make the community feel as if "justice" was done, but how is justice done by committing more sin?

5. Preventative, to make others not want to commit the same sin, but death isn't the only choice and some say life in prison is worse than death row.



I will say that in my humble opinion rehabilitation is the highest plain of punishment. We need to focus the criminal system on rehabilitation and preventing at a young age not after the fact of heinous crimes. Yes some people are very far gone, but give them a chance and don't stoop down to a lower plane, a plane of continued violence.


Also, what if there was a major mistake in the court case? Pencils have erasers? Not when your pencil is the death penalty.


I realize that smarter people and good people will disagree with me on this and other people have different shoes than me.

[MattCW]

I oppose it but not for the usual reasons. By the time someone has done something so heinous we want them gone, why let them take the easy way out? Those criminals should get life in solitary with the bare minimum support to keep them alive.

[RunD1987]

Should make an Amendment abolishing the Death penalty nationwide

[jacqueg]

I oppose it -

1) I don't think the government should have the power to put a person to death.

2) Too many people on death row have been shown to be innocent. Our jury system is not perfect, but there is no way to undo an execution.

3) I don't like the fact that whether a person is sentenced to death depends to a great extent on which state tries them, and not on what they actually did.

[DRob4JC]

Obvious cases... they should be put to death in under a month.

Ft.Hood shooter
Dylan Roof

[Spottednikes]

Originally Posted by MattCW

I oppose it but not for the usual reasons. By the time someone has done something so heinous we want them gone, why let them take the easy way out? Those criminals should get life in solitary with the bare minimum support to keep them alive.

I'd be pk with that, but they end up getting tv, recreation time, conjugal visits, time off for good behavior and released back onto the streets.

[Listener2307]

I'm opposed. Republican.
The judicial system cannot be trusted with something like the death penalty. Too many mistakes have been made.

[Clarallel]

Unfortunately, to me, you undermine your point by talking about it in terms of Christ. This is not a theocracy.

You would do better to discuss it in practical terms. For instance, it's been shown that the death penalty isn't even a deterrent.

[evilnewbie]

Adultery is a lot different than murder...

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by MattCW

I oppose it but not for the usual reasons. By the time someone has done something so heinous we want them gone, why let them take the easy way out? Those criminals should get life in solitary with the bare minimum support to keep them alive.

I AGREE. Doing that might work as a better deterrent than putting them to death.

But Red States want to keep the death penalty. The Nebraska legislature tried to abolish it but a vote of the people overruled it. I think the vengeance factor and the fact the death penalty means the person getting it can never commit crime again still has a lot of appeal to conservatives. Oklahoma voted to make the death penalty part of the state constitution.