culture of death

[s4angel]

Ok we know to kill is wrong.End Quot!! no question to that so we know to kill a child before it can defend itself while still in utero is so horrificaly wrong it squeezes us and makes us sick to know it is perfectly legal. But that is not the only murder that the law allows.

What are your takes on exacution.

 

[PoliSciProf]

I have evolved from being more or less pro-death penalty to being pretty much against it. My thinking:
Too many errors have probably been made.
Vengence probably enters into the judgement much too often.
I doubt it defers acts of passion.
Repetence and redemtion are always possible.
It can be Cruel and Unusual as it has been carried out.

I think it should be reserved as the highest penalty for crimes that strike at the very things that make society possible. It should only be applied to those convicted of the murder of a policeman/firemen/judge in the doing of their duty, contract murder (I would include acts of terrorism), and the killing of witnesses to a crime to prevent or punish their testimony. ALL other crimes, no matter how horrible, should not merit the this penalty. I would apply a high standard of evidence in these few cases. I would prefer no death penalty at all but would accept it in these cases as a prudential matter so that perhaps the use of it could be ended in other cases.

 

[s4angel]

I work in a place where we have death row… I have witnessed many things while I worked there. Before working there I to stood on the fence. I knew that my church stood against it but in my heart I felt for the victims.

then I watched things over and over again. Murderers converted to god and making a difference in the world around them. Familys of the convicted crying and trying to come to terms with not only what their loved one did but that they would lose the one they loved as well.

The person killed as awful as it was creates one family of victims then we execute the person who purotrated the crime and we create another set of victims. the person we execute and their family.

I have never understood why we punish a killig with a killing. instead of one victim we create another. I have been told it gives those who lost their loved ones closure. How so??

 

[Ender]

Too many errors have probably been made.

The number of credible (but not proven) claims of innocent people being executed is about four since the death penalty was reinstated in about 1977. Balanced against that there are probably 30-50 innocent people killed each year by killers released from prison who kill again.

Vengence probably enters into the judgement much too often.

Vengeance may be desired by the victim’s family but in fact justice requires that the state impose a penalty commensurate with the severity of the crime.

I doubt it defers acts of passion.

It might not deter acts of passion but it seems undeniable that at least some killers would be deterred. How many innocent people have to be saved to make it a useful deterrent?

Repetence and redemtion are always possible.

As Samuel Johnson said: “Knowing you are going to die in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully.” I think the argument that someone is likely to repent knowing he will be executed is at least as strong as expecting that he will repent from spending the rest of his days among criminals.

It can be Cruel and Unusual as it has been carried out.

I have a hard time with this argument. Most convicts are executed via lethal injection and there is nothing either cruel or unusual about that procedure.

Ender

 

[estesbob]

I work in a place where we have death row… I have witnessed many things while I worked there. Before working there I to stood on the fence. I** knew that my church stood against** it but in my heart I felt for the victims.

??

The Church does not stand against it.