Capital punishment

What are your thoughts on capital punishment?

Do you believe that there are civil crimes so heinous as to warrant being put to death by the state? What about military crimes?

What crimes would justify the death penalty? Does it matter if the crime was committed during wartime?

Does the age of the convicted person matter? Does the age of the victim matter?

What methods of execution should be acceptable?

What should be done if it is discovered that a person has been wrongfully executed?

Do you believe that the death penalty is an effective deterrent? Or is it sufficient that it act as punishment for the crime?


The world today is sharply divided as to acceptance of the death penalty. If you are going to commit a serious crime, it definitely behooves you to take care where you commit it.

With one exception, all the Western industrialized nations have either officially abolished the death penalty or do not practice it. The lone exception? The United States, although 15 states and the District of Columbia have abolished it, and as a practical matter, it is not often exercised even in the states that allow it.

According to Amnesty International, almost 6,000 people were officially executed throughout the world in 2008. Nearly 90% of them were in just one country. Can you guess the country? (answer below)

Throughout history, use of the death penalty was much more common than it is today. Most nations in the world have at one time or another exercised capital punishment, and they have considered a range of crimes to be capital offenses. The most common capital crimes have been murder and treason, followed by sexual crimes such as rape, incest, or sodomy. In many Islamic countries, religious crimes such as blasphemy or apostasy (formal renunciation of Islam) are considered capital.

Other common capital offenses today include military desertion or mutiny, drug trafficking, and political corruption.

Historically, you could be put to death for all manner of offenses. In England during the 16th century, for example, unauthorized tree-cutting could result in your being sent to the gallows.

A serious trend toward abolishment of the death penalty throughout the world began in the 1800's and continued through the latter part of the 1900's.


According to Amnesty International, 5000 people were executed in China in 2008. Iran was a distant second with 346, Saudi Arabia third with 102. No other nation in the world had more than 100.

China's position as the world's leading executioner is ironic, because China was one of the first nations to abolish capital punishment in the 6th century AD. It was later reinstated.

 

if the evidence is 100% clear, then the death penalty should be used for murder (not manslaughter)

imo.

 

Murdering a fellow citizen warrants the death penalty in my mind.
Multiple assaults/rapes, I also view as being too heinous of crimes to forgive in the modern world.

I also think there should be a process of validating if there is strong enough evidence to give someone the death penalty.

What are your feelings?
What made you think to make this thread?

 

I thought of it yesterday when I happened to come across an article about Charles Manson.

I agree with both of you. I think that there are people who by their actions have given up any right to live. I can think of a few cases that were so horrifying, so depraved and cold-blooded, that in my opinion death was entirely appropriate. And it should go without saying that the verdict in the case would have to be 100% ironclad certain. I don't know how you determine that, exactly ... I guess every capital case has to be determined individually.

As an example, the guy who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma ... death penalty, no question. But something like OJ Simpson? No. Not because the crime wasn't horrible enough -- it was -- but because the case wasn't 100% ironclad. Even though everyone knows he did it, the law couldn't arrive at that conclusion because of the way the case was presented.

To me, the purpose of the death penalty is strictly as retribution. I don't think capital punishment is much of a deterrent at all. I've seen a number of studies on this question, and they're very contradictory. They're too dependent on assumptions, and in the case of the West, the sample sizes are too small.

 

they should let victims families decide and even participate ie pushin the button[or trigger]

 

I find it to be somewhat of a deterrent. It really all depends on the person. The banker that hates his wife and has a nice insurance policy on her, may be deterred by it; if he's in love with himself enough.
Someone who hates their life and is getting back at someone (even if someone is anyone) - absolutely not.

The way I see it, is a relief to society. Why should we have to give our tax dollars to keep alive someone that wants us dead?

 

That's actually done in some countries. The victim's family has the right to commute a death sentence.

 

One of the arguments against capital punishment is that, due to the way the cases are handled, they often actually cost more than life imprisonment.

 

That's due to the way cases are handled - and one shitty, rigged argument (as I feel you'd prolly agree).

In prison we feed them gruel and instant ramen without broth. In death row, we give them each their own rather large cell, and feed them full out meals.

If anything - this should be switched. Personally, I think ramen is overly humane - but I also think 90% of prisoners should not be there - so it's hard to be too strongly opinioned about that.

 

I can understand the argument that there needs to be death for people who commit the most horrible crimes and that victims need to choose the punishment for themselves.. I can also understand that death may be too easy for people who have committed horrible crimes and executing a person for a crime is just as bad as a crime. While I don't support capital punishment, I respect the opinions of those who do. I'm not going to stop people from not wanting to enforce the death penalty, it's your choice.

 

I don't believe in the death penalty. I feel that is the easy way out for the criminal. Those who have been fairly convicted of crimes that would normally make them eligible for the death penalty should be spending the remainder of their lives incarcerated and doing some kind of good for society (farming, making a product and selling it, training dogs for the blind, building roads, etc) and, at the very least, earning their own keep. I do not feel that it is fair for the taxpayer to have to support criminals... essentially giving them shelter and food and clothing, when thousands of good, law-abiding Americans are starving and homeless due to bad luck or sad circumstances.

That being said, I feel that many are wrongly incarcerated and that drug laws need to be revised to reflect reality vis a vis alcohol use.

 

If an individual has no regard for the life or lives of others,I'm not sure if society should be so magnanimous as to let them continue to partake in that which he/she has taken from another/s. Callous murder and crimes against children should ,I think, be considered capital cases. As one other poster said,cases should be decided on an individual basis. Some cases of women killing their abusers have been reversed after conviction and some were not convicted because of the horrible abuse they received .Fair enough. There is no excuse for those that rape,molest and/or kill children.It is said that they cannot be rehabilitated and I believe it. Depending on the seriousness of the offence,they should,in my opinion be killed or incarcerated for life with no possibility for parole. Again,case by case,but with the understanding that child abusers are pretty much lifetime recidivists.

 

Ordinarily I don’t support the death penalty, but I had no problem at all when they executed timothy mcveigh
for the oklahoma city bombing


Hotwater

 

Agreed.He should have done it when no one was in the building if at all.I'm not saying he should have done it.

 

I drove through oklahoma city just after they leveled the building and stopped to read the pictures and memorials posted on the fence surrounding the site and suddenly the tragedy really hit home


Hotwater

 

All those little innocent children--that was so bad.

 

i totally oppose capital punishment... so many innocents are murdered in that way... and even if the accused is guilty as hell, don't you think that by killing them we become the murderers? AND we fail to learn anything useful from the whole exercise? It also makes it very easy for the powers that be to blame an individual/individuals for something that has, infact been commited by the powers that be.... how very convenient for the powers that be!!! plus, i happen to believe that death is release... no, IMHO, capital punishment serves no purpose....

 

Anyone who says death is a release has obviously never been 4 hours away from dying and knowing it was going to happen. Everyone has survival instinct, and this isn't the 1850's anymore, sure, even on death row you will spend most of your time in a cell. But you're allowed letters, occasional visitors, books, food and death row inmates actually generally eat better then most prison inmates since they have special food made to be delivered to their cell, in some places you can get musical instruments or a TV.

 

actually, you are wrong... i have been very close to death... i had a 20% chance of surviving.... i also remember being dead before i was me this time round... i'll say it again.... IMHO death is release.... for those of us that have a fear of death, i am sure the lead up to it is not pleasant, but once you cross that boundary.... IMHO it is release....

 

Well I dont think we should just execute murders, like some you said .. have to consider the circumstances. Thought in my state DRI's wait a long time before being executed.
my problem is having death row inmates close to their loved ones/ family. I think DRI's should be moved across the state or to other states. To inconvenience their families visiting rights.. Sure you can visit them, if you travel 1000 miles..
I will give you a for instance. Richard_Baumhammersis housed in SCI Green
his family drives 20 minutes to visit him once a month. While the victims families cant visit their loved ones cause they are dead.
case went before Judge Lawrence J. O'Toole , and hes a softy on the the mentally ill.