Should the death sentence be used more?

[deckai]

I'm kinda undecided on this topic, on one side... most punishments are not hard enough if somebody killed someone (innocent) on purpose and with dedication he should be sentenced to death. But the problem is proving this point, his intentions and his guilt... If there were a way to be 100% sure, I would say, yes. But unfortunately it's impossible and so I say no, in our world no one should be sentenced to death.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Is the US the only first world country to still have the death penalty? It is an outdated and backwards method of justice anyway.

Not quite, Japan and South Korea both still have the death penalty. But only for murder and treason. In Japan the death penalty is not usually considered until more than one murder has been commited, they execute a couple of people a year. I know nothing about S Korea's justice system beyond that they have it.

#Edit:
Useless facts.
Russia has the death penalty, but has not executed anyone since 1996, post Soviet era Russia is not big on executions.

The UK had the death penalty until 1998(!!!).

 

[TheGuiggleMonster]

I think that prison shouldn't be the same... The countries of the world should establish a place where they send all their criminals and forget about them until their sentence is up. I don't mean getting criminals to start new lives in foreign countries, I mean that the world could pay Russia to send all the criminals to a large part of sparsely-habited land and get them to fend for themselves. And tax them. If we tax them enough, we might even make money from them. We could tax them for food and ban them from using technology that's too advanced. If they starve, so be it.

I don't see the point in the death penalty.

 

[meowchef]

Every single time a person is convicted of rape or murder.

But, in the former, you would be sentencing them to a fate worse than the crime.

Not necessarily. They destroyed at least one life... you destroy one life.

Also, who is anyone to decide if a life will be destroyed?

You can never justify it. Ever.

It's perfectly justified in my mind. The two crimes I mentioned deserve the death penalty.

 

[Red Right Hand]

 

[The Stonker]

See where this is going? Also, to who's set of justice and believes do we adjust to?
A crazy bigot might get into power and make it illegal to be gay and that you would get the death sentence.

Murdering people for however bad their crime is, is not right.
Because the state is taking a life here, you voted the state, so techniclly YOU! Are murdering him. YOU! Are taking a life. It's you! Who took the ability to vote and got these people in.

By your logic we shouldn't have any penalties at all. That same logic can be used to say "A crazy bigot might get in power and make it illegal to be gay and that you would be put in jail for the rest of your life, therefore we shouldn't have jails." Personally, I would rather be killed than put in jail.

And I disagree that killing murderers is "not right." It is VERY right to kill people who kill innocents. Eye for an Eye after all.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
No, I'm saying keep them locked up! But if you want to throw morals out of the window because you're obviously not into those, then it actually costs more to legally execute a person rather then keeping them locked up, amazing isn't it?
IF you really want to go into practicallity then send them to serfdom!

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Do you believe that the death sentence should be used more often

I'm pretty sure most people find that it's used only once...

And the thread is now over as I can no longer take anything said here seriously. Curse you!

 

[katsumoto03]

No, of course not! The death penalty is fucking ridiculous. Murdering someone because they murdered? Yeah, no. That's not fucking hypocritical at all...

Murder's far too easy for the criminals. It's a cheap, easy way out. Have you ever been in jail before? It's far worse than death.

 

[Leg End]

Every single time a person is convicted of rape or murder.

But, in the former, you would be sentencing them to a fate worse than the crime.

Not necessarily. They destroyed at least one life... you destroy one life.

Also, who is anyone to decide if a life will be destroyed?

You can never justify it. Ever.

It's perfectly justified in my mind. The two crimes I mentioned deserve the death penalty.

In your mind being the key phrase. That does not make it just.

In my mind, that makes you just the same as whom you are executing.

And... by your logic...

Do you see where I'm going with this? :/

 

[Neuromaster]

Whats the point of serving out life sentences again? especially 3 or 4 life sentences?

If you're innocent [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project#Wrongful_convictions], you can be exonerated and released. Resurrected not so much.

"In the last 9 years, 266 people previously convicted of serious crimes in the United States had been exonerated by DNA testing. Almost all of these convictions involved some form of sexual assault and approximately 25% involved murder."

It bothers me that people can be so gung-ho about stepping up the death penalty when the reality is that you will be killing innocent people. How can you be casual about that? What does it accomplish? The death penalty is clearly not a deterrent [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates], so you'll allow hundreds of innocent people to be killed for... what? Some individual's sense of vengeance?

An eye for an eye? Really? I'd refer you to Matthew 5:38-5:39 - "You have heard it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also". Or if you HAVE to go back to the Torah, how about thou shall not motherfucking kill.

Religion aside, the death penalty kills innocents and those capable of redemption. It does not deter crime. It's barbaric and a national disgrace that we haven't abolished it yet.

 

[Phoenix09215]

It should be used less. As in, it shouldn't be used at all.

This. Sentencing someone to death is murder. It doesn't matter whether they killed hundreds of people or any other crime. Remember that someone has to kill that person, which in my book makes them a murderer too!

 

[KeyMaster45]

The worst of the worst never feel bad about what they did and in the most heinous of crimes yeah, I support the death penalty. Not because I think that's some kind of adequate punishment but because I don't want someone that deranged to continue living be they locked away or not.

But, then you are making a decision that is no better than what they most likely made.

By that logic, someone who kills people just because they believe said persons are "mentally deranged", can be considered deranged themselves.

You see where I'm going with this, right?

Not really. If you've got a dog with rabies you don't lock it away for the rest of its life you have it put down before it can hurt someone. Not out of some higher moral standing of putting it out of its misery but because you're afraid it will cause harm.

I'm not claiming to be morally correct on this situation. I'm saying that people who do stuff like the Manson murders scare the ever loving piss out of me and I feel the world is a safer place if they just cease to be instead of sitting on their duff in prison. Where it's possible some bleeding heart ninny will start campaigning for their release after a few years of their life sentence.

 

[Woodsey]

The death sentence isn't a deterrent, and it's more expensive I believe to keep people on death row for years on end, going through huge numbers of court cases to try and get them off it.

Then, of course, there are the cases where people have been wrongly accused. You may not be able to give a man 20 years of his life back, but at least he'll get some years after that. Once you're dead, that's it. At best you can hope for a posthumous pardon, big fucking whoop.

And finally, when you seem to think society is becoming more barbaric (it's not, but let's roll with the hyperbole), what makes it better to then have the government and judges killing people too?

What's that saying? 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.'

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I think we should bring it back for repeat offenders because obviously they're never gonna learn so kill them now I say. Also some people say the death sentence expensive. It isn't, all you need is one bullet, it's fast and painless.

 

[Anchupom]

I'm all for doing what they did in the old days...
Find a weird island and send all the convicts to live there.

Sorry, Australia.

 

[Davey Woo]

From what I know, the American government spends millions a year keeping prisoners on death row, so I don't think it should be used any more than it already is.

 

[Jumpingbean3]

No. To be honest I'm against the death penalty as a whole and a lot of people would call me on that but I have one argument that I will never back down on and that is a simple question: how many innocent people have been found guilty and sent to the chair? Surely there must have been at least one. When you put an innocent person in jail you take away their freedom but the prisoner at least has the hope he may be found innocent and released and they get to keep their lives. when the justice system executes an innocent man , whether they know of his innocence or not, they commit manslaughter, a very serious crime and that reflects poorly on them and makes them look like hypocrites in the eyes of some.

 

[Death God]

No. Unless it means they are going to jail. Jail is cozy with all the computers and free lunch and such. But if it is prison, no. Imprisonment is much worse than death.

 

[thisbymaster]

There is no reason to keep career criminals around those who have multiple violent convictions should be put to dead. This is not to stop other people from committing these crimes but to permanently remove these elements from society. They add nothing and take away lives and businesses. Those people who don't believe that there are crimes worthy of execution simply are not paying attention. We are in no way short on people or in need of anything a criminal can give, so we should get rid of them. Prisons don't work, you can send even non-violent criminals there and they will come out more violent. You cannot help these people, you can't turn them around, you cannot redeem them. It is time we simply let go of them completely.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

No. Unless it means they are going to jail. Jail is cozy with all the computers and free lunch and such. But if it is prison, no. Imprisonment is much worse than death.

I certainly didn't expect this from a Death God.