A liberal for the death penality

[Aunt Spiker]

I remember hearing something about change recently.......

Yeah, I heard that joke, too . . . it was pretty funny.

 

[mac]

Yeah, I heard that joke, too . . . it was pretty funny.

Well, I think the death penalty as a deterrant doesn't really work, and life in prison isn't much worse than what our sailors put up with everyday. I say gulag for violent offenders. Let them fend for themselves in the environment they try to create in our backyards. Want to talk about punishment...throw em in with a couple of hundred of folks just like them and make them fend for themselves. If they live, they live, if they die they die, but they do it to themselves.

 

[Glinda]

I consider it this way:
What is the purpose of keeping someone alive and in prison if they're certain to never leave?

I agree with this, but ultimately, there is no certainty that someone in prison will never leave. Murderers are paroled all the time; sentences are commuted. And people have escaped from death row, you know.

If we know a murderer is guilty (e.g. irrefutable DNA evidence), and have checked and double checked it to be sure, and a jury is convinced of the murderer's guilt beyond all reasonable doubt, there is no logical reason to have a life sentence option at all. A life sentence is simply a free license to kill. Decades wasted on appeals isn't going to change anything, and life in prison just puts more people at risk. I say put them to death right after the trial and be done with it.

In my world being a productive and law abiding citizen is extremely important - such people are worth a fight when it comes to life and death (such as health, etc). NOT being a productive and law abiding citizen when you've earned the death penalty for yourself (or life in prison) sorta knocks you off the importance list for me.

I completely agree. Did you know that a 2001 Department of Justice study found that eight percent of those who were sentenced to death had been convicted of a previous homicide? How many chances should we give convicted murderers to murder again? How many innocent members of society should we put at risk to protect the rights of the poor murderer? Studies show that each execution saves the lives of five people (see above link).

 

[RyrineaHaruno]

So...when the **** did you become god? Cause I was pretty damned sure I was next in line for that job.

Lulz I don't play god I just say, if they did a crime worthy of capital punishment I'd say let rot in prison, or hang'em.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

I agree with this viewpoint. The purpose of prison should be to rehabilitate criminals so that they can rejoin society. If someone can't or won't be rehabilitated, there's no reason to keep them alive and they certainly shouldn't be kept with the prisoners that we intend to release back into society.

Can't give a person ten years of their life back, either.

Well, here I stand noted and corrected - there are statistics which are terribly high, I think, for the # of people actually exonerated and removed from Death Row due to revelation fo their innocence.

Since 1973, over 130 people have been released from death row withevidence of their innocence. (Staff Report, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights, Oct. 1993, with updates from DPIC).

From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3.1 exonerations per year. From 2000-2007, there has been an average of 5 exonerations per year.
Race of Death Row Inmates and Death Row Inmates by State Source: NAACP LDF “Death Row, U.S.A.” (October 1, 2009)

When added, the total number of death row inmates by state is slightly higher because some prisoners are sentenced to death in more than one state.
Race of Death Row Inmates

source

I'm thoroughly shocked.
I guess it shouldn't be a shock - our crime system sucks.

So, yeah - the D.P. shouldn't be even in place if our system is *that* bad. :shrug:

 

[tryreading]

I'm typically a model democrat, no war, pro-choice, pro-health care reform, ect... But I'm for the death penalty. Not out of revenge, but out of necessity. I don't believe that killing a killer makes the world right(an eye for an eye leaves the world blind), but we spend so much money to keep people who show no signs of ever being rehabilitated alive in prison for the rest of their lives. I would reserve the death penalty to repeat offenders of violent felonies, and have it carried out all within a year of their sentence. Honestly, I feel bad for violent murderers, something obviously went wrong with them, but I feel that if there is no hope for them, that they cannot be released back into the world, it's back to spare them life in prison and tax-payer dollars and end them.

Ikari is right about the costs actually being higher for death penalty cases.

And if you are going to carry out the execution in one year, you've just sh_t-canned the American legal system.

 

[MaggieD]

There have been an average of 5 exonerations per year from death row. Hmmm......

I'm against the death penalty because it's too easy an exit. Wish I had that option. Let them die alone, apart from loving family and friends. I can't think of a worse fate than that.

 

[Aunt Spiker]

While reading up on different cases of executions and the crimes committed I agree less, now, than ever. . . there's *no* rhyme or reason to it.

Christina Riggs, executed in 2000 for killing her 2 children - she killed her children before she tried to commit suicide. She *wanted* to die and 3 years later she got what she wanted. That makes NO sense - she wanted to go and they did it for her on our dime! They should have refused the death penalty for her and simply locked her up for life so she could live in misery every day with the reality of what she did on her mind.

WTF