I’m for the death penalty…in theory, anyway. And here’s why:
I don’t want to pay for these people to live. Frankly, if they’ve murdered someone and are stuck in jail for life, they’re not contributing to society. They’re as good as dead anyway, so get rid of 'em.
How likely is it that someone who has a long history of murder, rape or other violent crimes, can be rehabilitated? If they can’t be rehabilitated, get rid of 'em.
Okay, okay - that aside, I know that in practice the death penalty isn’t infallible. Also, the following are reasons why I should not be pro-death penalty:
I’m not God (if there is one, that is). I can’t decide the fate of one man’s life over another.
With new DNA testing, people who have been in jail for years are being acquitted (sp?). If there’s a chance someone didn’t do what they were convicted for, their death is on the hands of those who decided to kill him. And justice has not been served at all.
There are a few other reasons, but I’m lazy, it’s Friday, and I’m not going to go into them.
These same arguements are equally applicable against locking someone up for life. Who are you to choose to lock someone in a cage for 60 years? How are you going to pay them back if you wrongly locked them up from age 18 until death at age 90? I think there might me a lower pit of hell for that than for the inocent getting the death penalty.
If anything, the DP mobilizes some element of society to look for the inoccent among the DP population, where you don’t generally see this among lifers. In fact, if improperly imprisoned, you might be better off with the DP than life. At least someone might take in interest in your life and try to get you free.
Who gives a flying fuck if you think its barbaric. Many Vegans think its barbaric to eat meat. Some think its barbaric to spank your kids. Some think prisons and solitary confinement are barbaric too. Everything is barbaric to someone. Personally, I call it justice.
Get rid of the pieces of shit. If my own flesh and blood commited a murder and was convicted, hell, I’d probably volunteer as a triggerman.
FTR - I think a firing squad is pretty humane. More so than, say, the chair.
So Coldfire, which is it: acceptable or unacceptable. Or maybe only acceptable when you personally are allowed to decide, but no one else is allowed any input. I guess Christ told you it was ok to execute Mengele, but not any of the scum in American prisons? Could you ask him impart divine guidance to me also?
I’ve noticed there are a lot of people in ‘The BBQ Pit’ who throw around phrases like “This woman is a victim of society’s values” or “We should let that guy out because he didn’t mean to do it, his brain chemicals are imbalanced”, but you never see any of these people start a thread in ‘Great Debates’ explaining why they believe the death penalty isn’t actually effective. Why can’t these people make an intelligent case for their position? What are they afraid of??
My views on the death penalty tend to correspond with Albert Camus’s. I disagree with it because I do not believe that the state has the right to kill one of its own citizens. As a deterrent, it is worthless–countries that have banned the death penalty do not experience higher murder rates than countries that practice it, and they often experience significantly lower rates. As it is practiced, the death penalty is more likely to be imposed on poor, minority defendants rather than on rich, white defendants. I consider it to be a barbaric relic from the past than any civilized nation should banish.
However, if I were to be executed, I would prefer the firing squad to most other forms of the death penalty. It’s not likely to go wrong, so long as the shooters can aim. Electrocution and the gas chamber creep me out. Lethal injection seems too cold and clinical. I’d much rather be lined up against a wall, and feel fiery bullets tearing through my chest. However painful it would be, death would come quickly. And I’ve always had dreams about being shot and killed, and have wondered how it would really feel.
So, it looks like I agree with DanielWithrow on both counts.
RrrUUHHH? You don’t think that a person who gets off by killing others in cold blood over and over (ala the aforementioned Jeffrey Dahmer etc) are suffereing?
This is NOT a normal lifestyle choice you know, killing and eating other humans for no reason. I’m sorry, but I really think you’re wrong here. I think that these serial killers and those of Bundy’s ilk suffer a great deal.
Normal, happy, mentally healthy people don’t just wake up and decide to go on a killing, raping spree without there being a pretty severe psychological problem and the inherent depression, and mental illness that goes along with it.
Grotesque as it may sound, I don’t see any evidence that they’re suffering. Causing suffering, sure. Suffering? Gotta see some evidence.
Not only that – it’s also gotta be evidence that they’re suffering enough to make their death a mercy-killing. That means that their suffering must outweigh the suffering experienced by the clinically depressed, by people with fibromyalgia, by the murder victim’s families, and so forth – unless you advocate mercy killings for all these people as well.
Oh, sure. Who’s going to climb down and haul the bodies back up, hmm??? Not me.
To be fair, while watching the video of people falling from the twin towers, I came up with the idea that the proper punishment for the people behind it would be to take them to the top of an 80 story building, light them up with a flamethrower, and give them a good shove. I do have my eye-for-an-eye moments, I guess…
I’m not surprised you are against the death penalty, Coldfire. Then again, you’re taxes aren’t paying for room and board for 2 million inmates. Dead criminals don’t cost taxpayer dollars, and we don’t have to worry about them coming back and committing more crimes.
I support the death penalty and personally find excecution far more humane than a lifetime of bondage.
Those of you (overlyverbose, and culture) that use economic arguments to support the death penalty (i.e., kill them now, it’s cheaper than keeping them alive), are missing the key point that it’s cheaper to keep them in the general prison population for life than to keep them on death row, give them a lawyer, and pay the court and other costs relating to the appeal of their death sentence. From an economic standpoint (out-of-pocket costs – not looking at benefits resulting from the “deterrent factor”, if any) I think that the death penalty is a net loser. Sorry no cite, but, hey, its the Pit.
If they want “humane” punishment (which I’ve always seen to mean as painless and instantaneous as possible), why use a “firing squad”?
Personally, if it were my time to go, I think I’d prefer two or three guys with submachine guns pressed against my skull.
Wouldn’t the near-instantaneous obliteration of someone’s brain be about as humane as possible? Or is the whole idea that it needs to be as “humane” as possible without being messy?
“The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of imprisonment for life (Duke University, May 1993.) On a national basis, these figures translate to an extra cost of over $1 billion dollars spent since 1976 on the death penalty.”
No need for the cite b/c I already know you are correct. However, this is a specious arguement, as I do not want to pay for endless appeals either. The obvious solution is give them a fair day in court, a fair day at an appeal (it is the death penalty afterall), and then kill them if found guilty both times.
I mean, it would be even cheaper still to just let them go.
It wasn’t meant as an analogy. (thanks for correcting my typos ).
I wasn’t touting that they are “suffering enough that their death would be a mercy to them”. I was disagreeing with your statement that they weren’t suffering greatly and that statement alone. I’m sorry if I mislead you into thinking that I was using that as a “this is why they should be killed” statement.
Yes, they cause suffering for others, but these are NOT healthy, normal people. Their minds, souls and hearts must be just a maelstrom of psychological upheaval and agony.
And as for the non-serial killers? The ones who made a stupid, stupid “mistake” and killed someone in a holdup or the like? Obviously not all of them will care, but there have to be many who are in agony over the turn their lives took.
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