Oct 4, 2011 / Topic Ideas

Do you agree with the death penalty?

Topic #268:

Do you agree with the death penalty? Is it ever right to kill? And under what circumstances? Is it worth the risks of being wrong?

For an interesting and surprising history ready Wikipedia’s entry on Capital Punishment (Only 58 nations actively practice it anymore).

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  1. The death of Troy Anthony Davis demonstrates some of the reasons I am against the death penalty. The machine could not be stopped once it was put in motion. The Innocent Project and the number of individuals that have been exonerated from DNA evidence shows just how often the system gets it wrong. The arguments for the death penalty, do not hold up–it is cheaper often to warehouse someone for life than to have them executed, it is not a deterrent. State sanctioned murder, to me, is the coldest of killings, and I find it abhorrent, in as much as I find the crimes that some individuals commit abhorrent.

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  3. Death sentence is to imitate the assassin.
    To pay with prison for the whole life, a worse shame is that, the own death.
    I believe that the life imprisonment is the guessed right mas. Regards.

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  4. I agree with it on the ones that are proven 100% without a doubt that they killed somebody or for the ones that admit it. They should be dead within a week, not sit on Death Row for 40 years while taxpayers pay for their meals. The person or people they killed doesn’t get to eat anymore, or do anything for that matter.

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  5. Personally I believe in it. If someone has taken someone elses life or done a terrible criminal offence such as rape I think it is only right that they go through what their victim has. I think it is unfair to have those sorts of criminals are just banged up in prison and given food and water etc for a number of years then get let out before the sentence on good behaviour. Why should they get it easy when the victim is scared mentally and families of those victims too. Also if said person gets let out on good beehaviour who is to say that they wont do it again? I think punishment in the uk is too lax and people really should pay for what they have done.

    Amy.

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  7. Against. Even here in England where the Justice system is better than most, there have been miscarriages. Having the death penalty does not deter a potential killer, as in America, Iran, China, etc.Would those who crave the death penalty have the guts to put a noose around a killer’s neck? No, they prefer someone else to do the dirty work.

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  8. Execution is especially awful when carried out by a state. It has no preventive effect. it´s more of a primitive revenge thing..
    Take a few seconds an think about the innocent people that has
    been assasined by the state..!!

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  9. There are people out there that have truly gone out of their minds and will kill at a moment’s notice, or will wait and plan and then kill their intended targets. I can’t ever imagine them being rehabilitated and put back into society. I would think the death penalty is needed for this scenario.

    Then you have people who claim innocence right up until the very last second before they’re put to death. It makes me cringe to see this because what if they’re telling the truth?

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  10. The fact that the U.S. still practices Capital Punishment is an embarassment. Of those countries that do still kill prisoners, 90% of the deaths are caused by just 5 countries. Guess who’s in that list? The Good Ol’ U.S. of A. Right alongside: Chine, Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. AWESOME company we keep, isn’t it?

    The fact that I live in a country that would kill Troy Davis (with overwhelming evidence of his innocence) and then let someone like Casey Anthony go free makes me wonder if we haven’t just all lost of F’ing collective minds.

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  11. It is surprising that as much as this country has been through, that we continue to see people as expendable. How is it possible that we can not see the irony of murdering a murderer. It is just, if not more, premeditated and it has been shown time and again that it does not extract justice but revenge. It often does not offer comfort to the families of victims and destroys the lives of the families of the accused. Therefore, we are no better than the perpetrator and have failed to show any attempt at rehabilitation. Funny how the prison system is set up to fail. Perhaps if we focused on the meaning of justice for all, we would serve both victim and the accused. But to take the life of another human when we condemn the act itself is a sad commentary on our society. Troy Davis is an example of the failures of the system, but it serves to put us on notice that where there is one innocent man, there are more. And should a man be allowed to make recompense for his crime or are we, as peers, so certain that he/she is no longer salvageable?

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  12. I am against the death penalty. First of all, because it there is a chance that they are not guilty, the system already has things that it is struggling with in the eyes of the public; it doesn’t need to be given any more reason to hate and oppose it. Secondly, if someone murdered a friend or family member of mine, I would personally rather have that sick bastard rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life than get out of all the suffering through a quick, painless death.

    Jail is not fun. If you look at stats, reports, documentaries, hell, go VISIT one… it’s not pretty. Frankly, jail dehumanizes a person. Isolates them from the world and days become unrecognizable as they blur into each other. Some don’t even have a concept of TIME because they are in confinement. No windows, no outside privileges, nothing. I would rather someone who did such an injustice such as rape, murder, child molester etc., to suffer for the rest of their life than get the easy way out.

    This is of course, on the promise that they will NEVER get out; even if on ‘good behavior’.

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  13. Do you agree with the death penalty?
    We live in a world where justice can be interpreted a thousand ways. There are people who really can kill without any remorse. As well as people who were just driven to do bad things to survive. Life imprisonment I think is the same as death penalty. Both may seem cruel and unfair to certain people. But life isn’t fair. Innocent lives gone are enough proof of that unfairness. And I am leaning towards death penalty. Only to those without any shadow of doubt, proven by law, as a criminal.

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  14. I’ve pondered the issue from many angles ~ as a philosophy major in college, as an economics major in college, while studying the ethics of law and the legal system in law school, and since.

    After considering it from many angles, including the claimed impact as a deterrent, as retribution, and as revenge, I am in favor of the death penalty . . . for many murderers on death row.

    Sometimes we KNOW they did it ~ not just by a preponderance of the evidence, not just beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond a shadow of a doubt. We caught them red handed . . . with the blood dripping from their murder weapon of choice.

    In those instances, I see NO REASON to keep them alive.

    They forfeited their right to life by taking the life of another.
    The finality of knowing they will DIE is what some of us need . . . in a life that is altogether UNJUST and UNFAIR.

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  15. I am against the death penalty, and as a member of amnesty International, part of an organisation that campaigns to end its use everywhere. The death penalty makes killers of us all.

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  16. For me it’s very simple – I don’t aprove death penalty, no matter what the crime is. To kill is not wrong only when you’re defending yourself. Nothing more to comment on it.

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  17. I’m for the death penalty. Sorry, but I believe in an eye for an eye. I don’t agree with the length of time that they’re kept on death row, however; it’s a bit long. I also don’t understand why the prisons use sterile needles for the lethal injection. What’s the point? Sorry, thought I’d try to inject a little humor into a rather humorless topic.
    And my being from Texas has nothing to do with my stance on the death penalty. I’ve just put myself in the shoes of the victims and their families; if someone I loved was murdered, I’d want the murderer put down. Hell, I’d hook up that IV myself.

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  18. I must admit that I am in favor of capital punishment and I substantiate my position by declaring the need for order in the universe. I am not motivated by emotions, which can, and will effect our feelings and when faced with the magnitude of this decision, the one area that should not be relied upon are our emotions, or our feelings. If someone has the capacity to commit a violent crime, they have stepped outside the realm of humanity, as we define it. In the United States of America, the most civilized nation on the planet, the lines are drawn in our conscience. We are a people who have been spared the harsh realities that other countries have faced. Our’s is the only Constitution that has stood the test of time and still provides the protection that every human being should have the liberty of, and that being freedom. Taking into consideration the cost of such freedom, I am overwhelmed by the hypocrisy I would own, if I said that a person, who’s acts of violence ended the life of another, could escape justice…and no, it just isn’t apples to oranges. A life for a life is the only measure to balance the crime. It should not be regarded as a deterent or even due punishment, lest we fail to understand that the life of the victim’s blood cries out for justice, and I mean this in a literal way. I think that if everybody who is against capital, would redirect thier energy to finding out who to put into office, and especially our local primaries, fewer errors would be made. I firmly associate the governing bodies involved in unfair decisions with an unholy motivating factor, be it fame, fortune, fear of dissasociation, or layered corruption.

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  20. No one has the right to take a life – end of story, and is it not a better punishment to look out at life through bars anyway. Better to bring back life term with hard labour.

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  21. A few years back, I interviewed Bill Pelke whose organization Journey of Hope http://journeyofhope.org was established as the result of a personal experience. He asked me then if I thought raping the rapist or burning the arsonist would help make the world a better place. I recently profiled Bill on my blog http://onemoreserving.blogspot.com and I realize that while we need to have a justice system that punishes a heinous act, while more costly, if may be a far more difficulty punishment to spend your life behind bars while the world goes on without you, so I am really for the “Life Sentence” if convicted of an unspeakable crime with no parole.
    While we need to punish individuals who commit serious crimes, we also must remember that many individuals have served years if not a lifetime behind bars for a crime they did not commit. We also need to rally for those who are serving time innocently.
    This is a topic that we will never stop discussing until the choice to take a life is no longer an option.

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    1. AGREED!!! Life imprisonment. No parole. NO PAROLE. No kissing up. No ‘time served’. Making SURE that every avenue is ventured, to make sure that the person serving the crime actually committed the crime!

      I also agree with you on the ‘CHOICE’ to take a life. That word is interesting, as it is the mantra of the feminist movement when it comes to abortion. in that case, there can be no argument that the victims of the death penalty are utterly innocent!

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  22. I disagree with the practice of capital punishment. Because it does not provide the opportunity to correct mistakes. Except when the mistakes made too often or is beyond the limits of reasonableness.

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  24. I refuse to believe that you can EVER forfeit your right to life. If you steal, the person you stole from has a right to steal from you. It doesn’t give third parties the right to steal from you. So by definition, you can only kill someone in self-defence. Eye for an eye, in cases where two wrongs will make a right.

    Moreover, there are certain rights that you can NEVER be justified in violating. The right to a fair trial, the right to bodily integrity, and the right to life. Society will not benefit in any meaningful sense (not counting revenge as meaningful) from the reaction, but beyond that, if you take away any of these things you treat someone as less than human.

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  25. No, definitely not.

    The premise of taking someone’s life is something that has deeply bothered me. Regardless of the heinousness of the crime, Capital Punishment is against the democratic logic of current western societies. Seems hypocritical in a way as well that for a society who goes on and on about spreading democracy, having the capital punishment in its fabrics is a must.

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  26. Topic #268:

    Do you agree with the death penalty? Yes. Is it ever right to kill? Yes. Under what circumstances? Self defense, war, and revenge with the understanding that the person in question should consider digging two graves. Is it worth the risks of being wrong? Yes. The people on dearh row are completely ruined anyway. The death penalty comes with the reality that killing one person, may in fact be helping another escape who truly does deserve to die. If loved ones of a homocide victim are looking for revenge. What difference does it make that an innocent person is executed. It’s cruel and unusual punishment to condemn a person to a perversely long prison term that’s until the day they die. Humanity !

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  27. every citizen should be under the rule of law in order to have an orderly life in the community and it is the right of the authority to implement the law. if it is violated then the right punishment should be made, including death penalty.

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  28. Personally, yes. Practically, no. I had to write a paper on this for a class, and was very surprised when I researched it.
    Fact: The death penalty is not a deterrant to crime. This is, in my opinion, because if you are willing to take an act that would warrant the death penalty instead of incarceration, then very little will stop you. A serial killer does not think of consequences first, but pleasure now.
    Fact: Crime is lower almost universally in countries that focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration and capital punishment. In fact, long incarceration actually causes repeat offenders and gives them no way to rise above.
    Fact: The death penalty is extremely expensive. In many cases, life in prison actually costs the government less. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is largely true.
    So, killing criminals doesn’t actually fix things or even accomplish anything in the long run. Sure makes us feel better when a Timothy McVeigh dies though….

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  29. I have no problem with the death penalty. If someone takes the life of another I completely agree with taking his or her life.
    Ron

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