Are you for or against capital punishment?

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Frogger
This is just plain stupid. Murderers will tell other criminals how to murder?

It happens. And they discuss a lot more than just murder. Why is this so hard for you to believe?

[SlowwHand]

Like they have so much else to talk about.

[drake]

I thought they exchanged recipes and sewed together.....and played parcheesi

[Caligastia]

you guys...

[Pekka]

Against. However, I'm for dp in war time, as in military court. But other than that, against in all cases.

[SlowwHand]

How odd. During war is when it would be most...acceptable, to me.

[drake]

Whys that pekka? To me that makes absolutely no sense.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by Kramerman
I am sure the one thing that will ever keep me from killing someone (in the US that is) is the knowlege that I myself will be killed.

So there is nothing stopping you from massacring everyone you meet outside the US?

If you ever come to Europe, please give us all plenty of warning...

[Q Classic]

i am against the death penalty in the case of humans. in animals, i don't think it makes a whit of difference.

that said: i don't think many on earth right now qualifes as "human". a human being is intelligent, using reason, logic, and emotion in a manner which allows it to grow and learn from past mistakes, assimilate new knowledge by observation, and can retain that information for future use.

until humans can show that they learn from past mistakes, there will always be a death penalty, whether or not it seems just or fair.

on a species-wide level, humans haven't shown that they learn from past mistakes. humans haven't proven that they are any better than animals. you have idiotic animals who don't realize that a suicide bomber killing innocent youth leads to an advanced tank crushing more children leading to yet another suicide bomber, ad infinitum.

i don't like the death penalty. the sanctity of human life is among the highest and most treasured things in existence.

i just don't think many of us qualify for such consideration.

[rah]

I support the DP, but not the way it is currently administered. Hopefully in the future, improved DNA testing will lead to more conclusive verdicts.

And I still believe it CAN be a deterrent. (based on interviews with convicts in jails that used plastic weapons to avoid possible death penalties. I never have known anyone to be killed by a plastic weapon)

Rich

[Boris Godunov]

Unilaterally no to the DP.

[FlameFlash]

Ramo said this very well
No because:
1. Our criminal justice system is far from perfect. Killing prisoners off prevents the possibility freeing an innocent person.
2. Someone in prison for life isn't going to hurt the general public (hurting other prisoners is another question entirely, which brings up other reform quesions... ), and such a person isn't given a chance at rehabilitation if the offence warrants it, and the death penalty certainly isn't deterring any crimes, so the only conceivable justification for the death penalty is revenge - a damn idiotic way to run a justice system.

To put it how I always try to answer it when asked this question.

Human beings are flawed, they cannot make unbiased decisions.
Because human beings are flawed, human laws, a creation of ours, is also flawed.
Therefore human "justice" is flawed because it is the enforcement of human laws.
Since we cannot be 100% sure innocents won't slip through the cracks simply putting them away for life (especially in the US) is more warrented.

rmsharpe added insight...
Against. Death penalty is too humane.

Forced labor and martial law.

I always like the idea my wife wants to see happen:

You give a criminal a shovel and force him/her to dig a hole big enough for them to sit in and lay in (think digging your own grave.)

Make sure it's too deep for the criminal to possibly be able to climb out... so the criminal may have to dig for quite a while.

Next, once finished, lower a bucket with food and water down to the criminal, make criminal use same bucket as a toilet. Insist that under penalty of having sentence doubled each time criminal refuses to do so and thus criminal will have to if ever wants to get out.

At the end of sentence, I bet nobody will ever think of doing it again, that's for sure.

Deportation for traitors and deserters. If they're not wanting to be loyal to the country, send them out of the country. Simple as that.

[Caligastia]

Jeez, why not just burn them at the stake?

[Zkribbler]

Against.

If there were any credible evidence that the death penalty served as a deterrent, I would support it. But there is none. Indeed, I have concluded the death penalty probably encourages murder.

When society kills someone with premeditation, this act sends a message that killing can be justified. Thus, members of the populous, when faced with a problem, are increasingly likely to turn to letal force as a solution.

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation to still have the death penalty. The U.S. also has the highest murder rate of any industrialized nation. It's clear that something in the U.S. legal system is not working.

One final note: The vast majority of murderers are not Mafia hit men or even criminals. They're citizens who get liquored up and, in a fit of anger & stupidity, take out an annoying spouse or some poor bastard living down the block. Most of the above posts seem oblivious to this fact.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
[Indeed, I have concluded the death penalty probably encourages murder.

Based on what?

Edit:

The vast majority of murderers are not Mafia hit men or even criminals.

Aren't all murderers criminals?