What are your feelings on the death penalty?

Started by Alaric I, February 22, 2013, 01:06:54 PM

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Alaric I

Quote from: "Poison Tree"There is a big difference between the death penalty in theory and how it is enacted in fact in America.
As mentioned, we have obviously executed innocent people. While we also imprison innocent people, at least once that is recognized the person can be released.

Issue is that if they are handed a life sentence they normally don't find out until after they have died, either by way of being imprisoned too long or by suicide. I really see no difference as you are still taking someones life away.  The difference is that the death penalty at least keeps them from suffering for a lifetime.
 
QuoteIt also (seems, at least) to be applied unequally on racial grounds. Of course, the same thing could be said about prison terms, but I don't see how the existence of one injustice should be an acceptable excuse for the existence of another.
The death penalty is also quite costly.
The death penalty, in theory, for some specific criminals, ok. The death penalty as it exists in practice in America, no.

I can't find anything in this part of the statement to disagree with.

Jmpty

Quote from: "Alaric I"
Quote from: "Jmpty"I vote no. An eye for an eye is not part of my credo.

It still is if you beleive on taking away their freedom.  Life is more than the ability to breath.

I think the abilty to breathe is kind of important, as far as defining what being alive means. Keeping people who have demonstrated that they are unable to live by society's rules separated from everyone else is the goal. To what degree, and for how long is dependent on the crime they commit. People are sent to prison AS punishment, not FOR punishment. Killing someone for a crime reduces us to the same level as the criminal. That's why we don't torture people, ( in theory) or why law enforcement has a code of conduct. We don't want to degenerate, as a society, into this biblical idea of "justice."
???  ??

Alaric I

Quote from: "Jmpty"
Quote from: "Alaric I"
Quote from: "Jmpty"I vote no. An eye for an eye is not part of my credo.

It still is if you beleive on taking away their freedom.  Life is more than the ability to breath.

I think the abilty to breathe is kind of important, as far as defining what being alive means. Keeping people who have demonstrated that they are unable to live by society's rules separated from everyone else is the goal. To what degree, and for how long is dependent on the crime they commit. People are sent to prison AS punishment, not FOR punishment. Killing someone for a crime reduces us to the same level as the criminal. That's why we don't torture people, ( in theory) or why law enforcement has a code of conduct. We don't want to degenerate, as a society, into this biblical idea of "justice."

I think you need to re-examine what life is than.  Breathing is quite important, but what's worse really?  Getting stuck in a small cell for 23 hours a day and having no contact with other people or slowly slipping into darkness?  I myself not really liking people would at least like to converse and get my thoughts out out there.  If I did something to have to stay in a tiny cell the rest of my life I would request the death penalty in order to avoid that.

aitm

an unusual perspective may be from those who are actually given the life in a cell sentence and while I am not aware of a book or article I am sure that I would say " I want life" as opposed to a death sentence, but if the sentence was complete solitude as it should be, after a half dozen years alone I may very well ask for the more immediate end.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Alaric I

Quote from: "aitm"an unusual perspective may be from those who are actually given the life in a cell sentence and while I am not aware of a book or article I am sure that I would say " I want life" as opposed to a death sentence, but if the sentence was complete solitude as it should be, after a half dozen years alone I may very well ask for the more immediate end.

Just listening to people talk about their experience in prison general population is enough for me to want to say screw living in there, I'll hang myself if need be.

commonsense822

Quote from: "Alaric I"
QuoteIt also (seems, at least) to be applied unequally on racial grounds. Of course, the same thing could be said about prison terms, but I don't see how the existence of one injustice should be an acceptable excuse for the existence of another.
The death penalty is also quite costly.
The death penalty, in theory, for some specific criminals, ok. The death penalty as it exists in practice in America, no.

I can't find anything in this part of the statement to disagree with.

Agreed as well.

1. I would rather have murderers and rapists spend the rest of their life in prison.  Death is the easy way out.  You wanna teach someone a lesson, you make them Bubba's girlfriend.  I'm not opposed to the death penalty exactly, but I'm kind of vindictive in the 'I want you to suffer' way, not the 'I want you to die' way.
2. We've killed innocents on death row.  You can't do anything at all to even try and fix that.  Death is final.  We can't be using shoddy evidence to put innocent people on the needle table.
3. The death penalty is more expensive than a life sentence right now.  Extra security, legal costs, etc build up.

aitm

the thing is the death penalty is made to be a grand production specifically for show. If it was done as a business, the guilty would be given a pill at some time and wake up dead.....cost .12
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

commonsense822

Quote from: "aitm"the thing is the death penalty is made to be a grand production specifically for show. If it was done as a business, the guilty would be given a pill at some time and wake up dead.....cost .12

How you gonna wake up dead?!?!
[youtube:rf9rhlv1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf8FAqOQUq4[/youtube:rf9rhlv1]

aitm

I am not going in anyway to suggest..........however....."wake up dead" has been a line of mine for over 30 years.....I know its silly but it would be cool if I started it....yeah I know. fat chance.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Thumpalumpacus

Quote from: "aitm"I am not going in anyway to suggest..........however....."wake up dead" has been a line of mine for over 30 years.....I know its silly but it would be cool if I started it....yeah I know. fat chance.

Fuckin' A.

[youtube:3118dsfr]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-60HA3exyo[/youtube:3118dsfr]
<insert witty aphorism here>

Alaric I

Quote from: "Thumpalumpacus"
Quote from: "Alaric I"
Quote from: "Valigarmander"The fact that so many innocent people have been executed for crimes they didn't commit is reason enough to abolish capital punishment.

So let me ask you this, because so many innocent people have been imprisoned for life, should we abolish life sentences?  Capitol punishment has it's issues but really, how do we pick and choose when and where to abolish things so innocents don't get caught up in it?

It's a lot easier to release a wrongly-convicted convict with a payment for the wrong done to him than it is to dig up his bones and reanimate him.  The death penalty should be used much more sparingly than we use it now, especially since we have so many problems with putting the right prisoner on Death Row.

As I stated before.  Most of the inmates that are convicted and served life sentences will die in prison.  This includes the wrongly convicted.  The problem there is once someone is convicted they shut the case never to look at it again.  My thinking behind this is I would rather catch a bullet to the brain than rot in a cell for the rest of my life.  Life is much more than mere breathing, and you can't say you are living stuck in a tiny cell with a toilet, a sink, a bed, and possibly a TV.

surly74

Quote from: "Mister Agenda"If it's 1 in a 100, maybe that's a reasonable ratio of sacrificing innocent people. I'm not so sure. But it's currently a lot more than 1 in 100.

what if you are that one person? People get pretty flippant when it comes to what is acceptable when innocent life is concerned. I wonder if i was wrongly accused of murder and the steps I'd want to make sure the truth is found out.

as for the death penalty, it does nothing, it's not a deterrent, solution, cost saver, nothing. It's revenge executed at a state level.
God bless those Pagans
--
Homer Simpson

Aroura33

Quote from: "Alaric I"As I stated before.  Most of the inmates that are convicted and served life sentences will die in prison.  This includes the wrongly convicted.  The problem there is once someone is convicted they shut the case never to look at it again.  My thinking behind this is I would rather catch a bullet to the brain than rot in a cell for the rest of my life.  Life is much more than mere breathing, and you can't say you are living stuck in a tiny cell with a toilet, a sink, a bed, and possibly a TV.
That may be true for you, but I am willing to bet the majority of people prefer hope to wrongful death. There have been people who were wrongfully convicted, and years, even decades later, discovered and released.

If you get locked up wrongfully, feel free to kill yourself, don't put that onus on the state or other human beings.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.  LLAP"
Leonard Nimoy

Plu

Quotef you get locked up wrongfully, feel free to kill yourself

It's not like they'll let you, which is quite riduculous, but you can try.

BarkAtTheMoon

Quote from: "surly74"as for the death penalty, it does nothing, it's not a deterrent, solution, cost saver, nothing. It's revenge executed at a state level.
How is life without parole any different?
"When you landed on the moon, that was the point when God should have come up and said hello. Because if you invent some creatures and you put them on the blue one and they make it to the grey one, then you fucking turn up and say, 'Well done.' It's just a polite thing to do." - Eddie Izzard