POLL. Do you believe the death penalty is the appropriate punishment for murderers ?

No, for many reasons:

- Mistakes happen. Since 1973 in the U.S., over 140 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. These are ALL people who had been found guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt." A life sentence is reversible. An execution is not.

- Cost - because of the legal apparatus designed to minimize wrongful executions (and the enormous expense of maintaining death row facilities), it costs taxpayers MUCH more to execute someone than to imprison them for life.

- It is not a deterrent - violent crime rates are consistently HIGHER in death penalty jurisdictions.

- It is inconsistently and arbitrarily applied.

- Because the U.S. is one of the last remaining nations with capital punishment, many other countries refuse to extradite known criminals who should be standing trial here.

- It fosters a culture of violence by asserting that killing is an acceptable solution to a problem.

- Jesus was against it (see Matthew 5:7 & 5:38-39, James 4:12, Romans 12:17-21, John 8:7, and James 1:20).

- Life without parole (LWOP) is on the books in most states now (all except Alaska), and it means what it says. People who get this sentence are taken off the streets. For good.

- As Voltaire once wrote, "let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson."

- Whether you’re a hardened criminal or a government representing the people, killing an unarmed human being is wrong. Period. “He did it first” is not a valid excuse.

No, for the following reasons -

1) It actually costs more than it does to imprison someone for life.
2) It isn't a deterrent (countries with capital punishment have higher murder rates than those without)
3) It's retribution and it doesn't belong in a civilised society.
4) The chance of innocent people being put to death.

@Yuan - Ever hear that an eye for an eye makes everyone blind?

No. (My answer is based on the system in the US, and not on sympathy for murderers.)

The worst thing about it is that innocent people sometimes get convicted and sentenced to death. You can't reverse an execution.

The death penalty system has other flaws:
It doesn't reduce violent crime.
It costs a whole lot more than life in prison.
It doesn't even apply to the worst crimes, but to defendants with the worst lawyers.

Life without parole is available in 49 states. It means exactly what it says, and spending the rest of your life locked up is no picnic.
Advantages: lower cost than the death penalty
if someone serving LWOP turns out to be innocent, he can be released.

why do we kill people ,who have killed people , to show people killing is wrong ?

... not really... such people could be put to far better use cleaning up the Worlds cities that apart from the odd shiny new glass building, seem to swim in a soup of filth?
We need to stop hiding these people in little boxes... and embarrass them for the rest of their days.

no to me that's an easy way out. you can repent for your sins and still may go to higher greater place in return the person they murdered didn't get that chance (which isn't any ones fault) i feel a person should sit in confinement and think about what they have done for the rest of their lives. being closed in and sitting with no one to talk to all day everyday is pure TORTURE

Eye for an eye, yes. They deserved it

No because i think that's a way of escaping punishment. Their punishment should be to rot in a tiny jail cell for the rest of their life and only be allowed outside for 1 hour a week.

hi. once I did have self assurance interior the loss of existence penalty. i do no longer anymore. that's misguided for the government to try this. There are too many situations the place interior the previous a guy or woman grew to become into the incorrect guy or woman. for people who did commit the crime it continues to be incorrect for all the voters tax funds to pay for the execution of a individual. I even have self assurance that is as much as God, no longer us. whether if somebody assaults me or my relatives i'm going to shield us and if meaning taking a existence i might. in easy terms in a subject the place we are at risk. If it have been somebody I enjoyed i does no longer choose them achieved and that i may be rather unhappy. Peace

Sure, if they took someone else's life then they should face the consequences. Give 'em hell first, then give them a long, agonising death. Seems to me what they really deserve.

Yes

No. Too quick and too easy. A cage, basic nutrition .... what I have in mind can't be called food.

Oh yes

No...Torture seems better

yes

yes.

yes

For some murderers, yes.

The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
Dudley Sharp

The death penalty has a foundation in justice and it spares more innocent lives.

Anti death penalty arguments are either false or the pro death penalty arguments are stronger.

The majority populations of all countries, likely, support the death penalty for some crimes (1).

Why? Justice.

THE DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES

1) The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/death-penalty-saving-more-innocent.html

2) Innocents More At Risk Without Death Penalty
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/innocents-more-at-risk-without-death.html

3) OF COURSE THE DEATH PENALTY DETERS: A review of the debate
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/03/of-course-death-penalty-deters.html


MORAL FOUNDATIONS: DEATH PENALTY

1) Immanuel Kant: "If an offender has committed murder, he must die. In this case, no possible substitute can satisfy justice. For there is no parallel between death and even the most miserable life, so that there is no equality of crime and retribution unless the perpetrator is judicially put to death.". "A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else's life is simply immoral."

2) Pope Pius XII; "When it is a question of the execution of a man condemned to death it is then reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned of the benefit of life, in expiation of his fault, when already, by his fault, he has dispossessed himself of the right to live." 9/14/52.

3) John Murray: "Nothing shows the moral bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity of human life." "... it is this same atrophy of moral fiber that appears in the plea for the abolition of the death penalty." "It is the sanctity of life that validates the death penalty for the crime of murder. It is the sense of this sanctity that constrains the demand for the infliction of this penalty. The deeper our regard for life the firmer will be our hold upon the penal sanction which the violation of that sanctity merit." (Page 122 of Principles of Conduct).

4) John Locke: "A criminal who, having renounced reason... hath, by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one, declared war against all mankind, and therefore may be destroyed as a lion or tyger, one of those wild savage beasts with whom men can have no society nor security." And upon this is grounded the great law of Nature, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Second Treatise of Civil Government.

5) Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "In killing the criminal, we destroy not so much a citizen as an enemy. The trial and judgments are proofs that he has broken the Social Contract, and so is no longer a member of the State." (The Social Contract).

6) Saint (& Pope) Pius V: "The just use of (executions), far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this (Fifth) Commandment which prohibits murder." "The Roman Catechism of the Council of Trent" (1566).

3200 additional pro death penalty quotes
http(COLON)//prodpquotes.info/

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REBUTTAL: Common Anti Death Penalty Claims

Saving Costs with The Death Penalty
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/02/death-penalty-cost-saving-money.html

RACE & THE DEATH PENALY: A REBUTTAL TO THE RACISM CLAIMS
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/search?q=racism

"Killing Equals Killing: The Amoral Confusion of Death Penalty Opponents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/02/01/murder-and-execution--very-distinct-moral-differences--new-mexico.aspx

"The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/20/the-death-penalty-neither-hatred-nor-revenge.aspx

"Moral/ethical Death Penalty Support: Christian and secular Scholars"
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/07/death-penalty-support-modern-catholic.html

"The Death Penalty: Not a Human Rights Violation"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2006/03/20/the-death-penalty-not-a-human-rights-violation.aspx


1) US Death Penalty Support at 80%; World Support Remains High
95% of murder victim's families support death penalty

from

Murder Victims' Families for Death Penalty Repeal: More Hurt For Victims:
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/04/victims-families-for-death-penalty.html

Much more, upon request. [email protected]

Whether it's a deterrent or not, the answer is yes - it is appropriate.