Death penalty

[blargg]

Recently we discussed the issue of 'gun control', another interesting discussion might be the one of 'death penalty'.

Personally I am strictly against it for two reasons:

1) It's irreversible, what if new evidence shows up?
2) The true nature of death has yet to be uncovered.

In 2003 there was a movie "The Life of David Gale" covering this subject. For some reason it was received very badly in the U.S.

[Solitary]

I'm against it because a lot of vicious people are found not guilty because people judging them don't want to be responsible for the perpetrators death. The law should be to protect society, not be an instrument of retribution with draconian laws. Also, there is no such thing as justice in my opinion, just injustice. This is not how I would think if it was a loved one harmed, but I don't think the law should be based on my personal feelings of revenge. If OJ had done what he did, to my son, he would have a golf club up his ass, and tortured to death. Not really, because I think it would be an injustice to his loved ones. I'm glad he's where he is at, to protect society from a monster. Solitary

[Mermaid]

I am opposed to the death penalty not only because there is  a chance of executing an innocent person, but also because it's barbaric, hypocritical and generally just disgusting. The law should not be about revenge, it should be about protecting people. Period. End of sentence.
Another less important reason I am opposed is because it actually costs the taxpayers more per death row inmate.

[KUSA]

I am for the death penalty. The fact that it is permanent is appealing. Removing scum from society prevents them from doing it again.

[Shiranu]

The death penalty stands staunchly against some of my deepest held morals, so no there is no way I will ever support the death penalty again. Add on top of that all arguments in favour of it have about 10 counter arguments as to why it is not a good idea... yeah, it's just both a bad idea and a simply immoral practice.

[aitm]

Old argument, lots of threads back there in the back room.

For it, as long as we have absolute proof.

[Bibliofagus]

The true nature of death has yet to be uncovered?
Lol.

[GrinningYMIR]

I support the death penalty for terrorists, war criminals, traitors, and some spies.

The rest can be institutionalized.

I also support death for those fucking assholes who decided to put carts on the other side of a 6 lane highway and force me to run over there and retrieve it

[stromboli]

Old argument, lots of threads back there in the back room.

For it, as long as we have absolute proof.

^this. And only when the murder is so heinous and planned the killer is obviously unrepentant.

[KUSA]

^this. And only when the murder is so heinous and planned the killer is obviously unrepentant.

Problem is they usually find jesus and act repentant.

[stromboli]

Problem is they usually find jesus and act repentant.

Yeah, no shit. Murder so foul, yet Jesus forgives. Yuck.

[Poison Tree]

In theory I'm ok with the death penalty. There may be some level of crimes where it is an appropriate action. However, it is all fucked up in practice. Not only do we have the issue of innocents being executed and it not actually being a denture, but (in America at least) there is a huge time delay before the death penalty can be given and it ends up being more expensive than life time in prison for the guy.

Personally, if my family member was killed I think that I'd rather the killer get life. If he were given the death penalty then he'd get a bunch of appeals and there would be fuss over the ethics of executing him and, generally, he'd just keep popping up in the news/my life for years. I'd rather throw him in some dark hole from which he'll never emerge so that I could leave the court room and never have to hear or (maybe) think about that hypothetical scum again. But that's just me and is certainly not a situation I'm actually been confronted with.

[Solitary]

I am for the death penalty. The fact that it is permanent is appealing. Removing scum from society prevents them from doing it again.

This is true, but how can you be so sure they are always guilty. Putting them in prison for life with no parole prevents them from doing it again if it wasn't a fact that if they have a lot of money and can afford lawyers like OJ had they can do it again.  Solitary

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Putting people in prison doesn't stop people from murder and in fact the murder rate inside prison is much higher than outside of prison so I support the death penalty when inmates murder inmates. If you can't behave inside prison the odds of behaving outside of prison are not good.
I don't support executing people for crimes committed outside of prison, but once incarcerated you had better learn to behave.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I used to shoot people for $247/month.