Capital Punishment: Right or Wrong?

[Tullaryx]

After reading through all the posts made in the end of Saddam topic, it would seem that there's quite a few people who believe that executing Saddam was not the best, or even the right thing to do. Does this mean these people just think Saddam shouldn't have been executed for his crimes, or is it a more philosophical view of the concept of the death penalty as a form of punishment for heinous and capital crimes.

Is this form of punishment justified for any of the capital crimes (premeditated murder, rape resulting in death, murder of law enforcement personnel, crimes against humanity, etc...) that capital punishment has been tied to? Some might say that humanity has progressed and become civilized enough to do away with such medieval forms of punishment.

Where do you stand in this issue? Are you against any and all forms of death penalty punishment? Do you think that such a punishment should be meted out for criminals whose crimes go beyond the pale of normal decency? Or are you in the middle where you think certain circumstances need such penalties but not for all capital crimes...
_________________

[Keo]

I'm for Death penalty. People who do stuff like murder and say god told them to mainly. But if it was in self-defence and now there one deathrow i find that wrong.

[iscalio]

[Masaya]

Although it would save Wisconsin alot of space withing our prisons, as well as save tons of money.

However it goes agaisnt my personal beliefs. I voted Wrong.
_________________

[Spell Breaker]

[Amyral]

[St. Ajora]

Well, I'm pretty wishy-washy on the subject, but I live my life without caring about dying. I wouldn't fight it, yet I understand those who would want to.

Regardless, as contradictory as it sounds, I don't think putting people to death would bring about any sort of justice, since that's largely preventative. All it does it fuel negative emotions, and personally, I don't think I could ever support a haunted life like that. That's my stance, though I'm very indifferent.

Although, to go further, to those who also say it's "wrong", I encourage them to look for inside opinions, as I did. In keeping with the Saddam-execution thing I remember watching a clip of a woman whose two sons were buried alive and she said she hopes that Saddam dies the same way- twice.

I mean, how is that wrong? How can you blame anyone for feeling that way? How can you go up to a childless, broken woman and say, "Believing in that death penalty is wrong." ? True it doesn't solve anything in the long run, but looking past that, is it really "wrong" to feel that way?

Nothing in this world is wrong or right, it's just choices and circumstances.

[AA]

I'm against the death penalty, i believe that there are things much worse than death plus it is more of a punishment for the ones that the criminal leaves behind than it it's for the person being zapped or injected.

Bring back the chain gang!

Plus there are many back breaking and hard labour jobs that need doing. A lifetime of hard work in my opinion is so much more of a punishment than death.

[Sophita]

Against. In just about all cases.

The Death Penalty just plain doesn't work, at least in America.

1) There is no way to exonerate the innocent - When you execute people, you are taking a genuinely huge assumption that that person is guilty. However, it's often impossible for us to tell whether someone was truly guilty or not; they may have been condemned so via the court, but the court is not infalliable. When a man or woman is exocuted and later investigations prove they were innocent, there is no way that the government can make up for that; you can't bring the dead back to life. An exocuting an innocent man is not just "an occasional hazard"; it's state-run murder. And this is a virtual certainty. And if the state is sanctioning murder, then what is keeping the state itself from being put on death row? It's a moral paradox.

2) It does not help the families of the victims, and hurts another family - Killing someone for a grevious wrong done to your family will not bring them back. Ever. If someone misses them, killing their killer/etc. will not satisfy that missing. And instead of having just one family hurt, the state now has two - the family of the person originally wronged, and the family of the attacker who will have to come to terms with the idea their son/daughter/sister/brother/mother/father is going to be killed, and may have committed a serious crime. There's a lot of trauma there. Not to mention the trauma of the prisoners too, who people tend to forget are people. How could you live knowing that you were going to die, and when, where, and how it would be done?

3) An Eye For An Eye Leaves Us All Blind - A policy of revenge for every single ill of society just leads to a rampant cycle of violence. Period. Rival gangs have been murdering members of other gangs they see as having done them wrong for years. Has that stopped gang warfare?

4) It does not act as a deterrant. When people push for the death penalty, they do so by saying that exocuting one person will convince other people to think twice before committing murder. And yet, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between the number of executions performed and the national murder rate. Furthermore, in order for it to act as a deterrant, one would have to consistantly, promptly and objectively be deployed. The death penalty can't be, at least in the US under conditions now - the death penalty cannot be a mandatory sentence, it takes many years for prisoners to be executed, and the poor are executed many, many more times than the rich, even for the same crimes.

In order to change that, the state would have to execute every person who stand accused of committing a capital crime irrespective of their sex, age, alleged mental state or background. Is that fair?

5) The Numbers Game - Though the numbers seem to boil down to life imprissonent being less costly to taxpayers on the whole than capital punishment, I ask you: If we are debating whether we should kill people because it might save us a couple hundred bucks, what does that say about us as a society?

[Milan Fiori]

I was all ready to post a huge essay on how I feel about this, but I think Sophita took what was in my mind, and posted it before I could. Well done, Sophie.
_________________
Be awed by our prowess!

[ViktorFan]

My vote is: no death penalty. I have nothing to add to that what Sophita said.

[Ryusei]

Sophita has already said everything there is about my views on capital punishment. I am against death penalty.

[Yvl]

I'm usually against it, but there are some people who are just too dangerous to be kept alive, such as political prisoners - Saddam is a perfect example. As long as he lived, there would be people loyal to him, enough so to give up THEIR lives for a false hope. It's got nothing to do with what the said criminal did, it would just be more beneficial for him to die than countless others.
_________________

[Eden]

I agree with everything my queen said...
I am against such ridiculous punishment that puts people in therapy, because they had a bad childhood and I hate molesters who will only get 4 years and then walk freely around molesting another child. Those kind of people should be locked away completely. I don't think that killing them, and capital punishment is nothing else, or torturing them would do any good.
I accept that some criminals couldn't realise that what they have done was wrong, but that doesn't mean that they are unguilty. Peope who rape childrem or women can't be healed in my opinion and being in prison for the rest of their lifes seems only fair, because I don't believe that they will ever become "normal, healthy" people. Still I think that even those human beings have the right to be treatened exactly that way: as human beings.
_________________


The Fool

[Rune hunter]

I believe the death penalty is wrong. Even in the most extreme circumstances.