Executions ~ Right or wrong?

[heretic888]

I am not sure what the answer is here, just throwing out some thoughts

Is the death penalty a deterrent to other to not commit the same crime? No
Does putting the offender to death prevent him from committing that crime again? Yes
Does imprisoning the offender for life prevent him from committing the same crime again? Depends on the crime, if it is murder he can commit it in prison, either against other prisoners or prison guards. Not to mention that there are criminals that call prison home. Kill a guy and you get to go home and get taken care of for the rest of your life.

Is deciding the effectiveness of capital punishment based on cost effectiveness the way to go? Not in my opinion.

If you are worried about cost effectiveness the cheapest ways to go would be ignore them all together and let them run loose in society. It will not cost you much monetarily but it will cost you a lot from the stand point of safety in society. Or you could just forgo all the imprisonment and appeals and trials and just shoot em’ one bullet is cheap.

But none of this is a solution in my opinion. So far all I have seen that is a deterrent is CERTAINTY of punishment. Which is something we do not have in the US; trail followed by many many appeals and then of course there is plea bargaining and there is always the possibility you will get away with it. I do not have the statistics to back anything up (and frankly without knowing the data that produced the statistics they are fairly useless for more than supporting your opinion in an argument) but it would be interesting to see the types of crimes committed and the repeat offenders in a country where it was fairly certain that you would get caught, imprisoned and or killed for a crime.

I am no longer certain what the answer is, but I do not think that weighing human life and/or safety against cost effectiveness of long term incarceration or capital punishment is the way to go here, but as I said this is only my opinion

Great post, Xue Sheng.

 

[Cryozombie]

I am no longer certain what the answer is, but I do not think that weighing human life and/or safety against cost effectiveness of long term incarceration or capital punishment is the way to go here, but as I said this is only my opinion

No, I think you are pretty spot-on. Imprisonment is basically a joke, there is almost no reason for executions, and the legal system, flawed the way it is, is still set up that way in hopes of preventing mistakes... There is not much that can be done in terms of a quick, easy solution.

 

[Cruentus]

I'll weigh in here.... why not?

I don't support the death penalty on a state level. It's not that I don't think that certain people shouldn't be killed, it is just that I think that on a state level, the system is flawed. Sure, maybe a Ted Bundy should be put to death; but what about the next guy who is innocent but falsely accussed? There is still an estimatedly higher percentage of innocent people on death row then most people realize. And I think that even if it is "only" 1 innocent person in 10 years who is wrongfully put to death, then that is 1 too many.

I think that life is a gift and a priviledge. So I am not morally opposed to ending someones life who has disgraced that priviledge and taken that priviledge away from others through mass murder or torture or genocide. I just don't believe we should take life away from an innocent person, even if by accident.

So this is why I do support the death penalty for international terrorists or tyrants who are responsible for the death and torture of many people when there is no question of their guilt. I think they have abused the priviledge of life to a point where they don't deserve to have it.

Maybe I am wrong in my stance on this, but this is how I feel.

 

[Lisa]

Beit the morals I have grown up with or beit the experiences in my life, I, personally would have a hard time sentencing someone to death or witnessing an execution.

On the other hand, as I have said previously, if it was a member of my family or, god forbid, my child, I probably would feel differently.

Yup, if it was my child, I would probably wanna rip the son of a ***** apart myself.

Every murdered person is somebody's baby.

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

I have seen a lot of video links pop up here on MT and elsewhere regarding Saddam Hussein's execution, all of which I have opted not to watch.

For my own personal reasons I can not bring myself to watch another human being's life end. That being said, perhaps if the circumstances were different and the person convicted of a crime had murdered a loved one, my feelings would be different. An eye for an eye and all that. However, even then I can not honestly say that I would be able to.

So it got me to thinking and I figured I would ask the question here. How does everyone else stand on the topic of State sanctioned executions? Are they right or wrong and could you or would you watch an execution if given the option.

p.s. please do not link any video of executions here, as they will be removed by the staff. Thanks.

There was a guy here in California named Lawrence Singleton. He did horrible things to a young lady, and left her for dead. She lived, and crawled back to civilazition with her hands chopped off -- just one thing done to her in the course of her cruel tortures.

When Singleton came up for release, nobody wanted him in their back yard. Testmony was offered at placement hearings that he was rehabilitated. At the very least, chemically neutered. In the course of events, he was placed in a small community. Authorities eventually had cause to search his home, wherin they found the remains of more torture and homocide victims.

This is an example of a man who gave up his right to breathe air long ago. Being spared execution by our injustice system, he was freed to give up that right again. How many peoples anguish could have been avoided if we just took him out of play the first time?

My own thoughts: Some people are monstors, and we don't need them.

Dave