What is your view on capital punishment?

[romelus]

send them to dig holes in antarctica for the rest of their lives

in cases of overwhelming evidence (like when a guy who goes into a bank, shoots five people and gets caught red handed), execute them on the second day

 

[amadeus]

Originally posted by Stapel
Are we willing to put the guarding of murderers in the hands of privatised institutions?

There'd obivously be a severe penalty for any convict who would escape. There are also prison escapes from state prisons too. I'll bet if state prisons were funded based on how many escapes happen, you wouldn't have nearly as many as you do now.

To the labor point, cities for example can hire them out for jobs they otherwise wouldn't normally do, so there's no result in a loss of labor.

 

[Smidgey]

Well this quotation shows both my views on capital punishment and the whole "eye for an eye" argument:

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
-Mahatma Gandhi-

I personally think that capital punishment is totally wrong, and anybody who believes it is right should read the works of any of the great philosophers such as Plato, Socrates or Confucius.

 

[Vanadorn]

Capital Punishment is not something that should be handed out to someone who commits a premeditated murder. There should be criterea to this (this is assuming the murderer is 100% provable):

The murderer performed only 1 murder.
The murdered is of age 18 and older.
No rape or sexual intercourse occured.

If the above are all met, then life imprisonment is an acceptable verdict.

If not, then the assailant/murderer has an extremely warped and depraved view of human worth and life. Something in their mind has misfired that allows them to commit serial murders, or kill kids and teens, or rape AND kill their victims (either one is horrible and should end up with long jail sentences, both together inexcuseable).

Most decent criminal psychology books and courses will go on to great lengths about anti-social, psychotic, and homicidal behaviors. They will spell out how some mental deficiencies are fixable with drugs and therapy. For that I am fine. However, for those that violate the 3 criterea I've listed (which also mirror the psychologists threshhold in regards to cases and case studies), there is nothing that could be done for these types of people.

So, if they are to be this way for the rest of their life, and if freed would commit the same or similar crime again, their life is forfiet. If in one day in the far future we have the ability to cure these individuals (without frying their brain, lobotmy, or drugging into a vegetative state (3 solutions over the last 40 years)), then capital punishment could be lifted for these people. Until then, sadly, they have given up right to live in a society that believes in the sancitity of human life and existance.

My 2 cents

 

[nonconformist]

I voted life without parole, as it is closest to my opinion, which is life with parole for people who show that they have understood the gravity, but they should be permanantly under surveillance.
Also, the death sentence is criminal. Noone should have the right to take or give life. Especially if a person is wrongly convicted.
The worse punishment is that of a tortured mind, filled with self hate, guilt and sorrow.
Child molestors and rapists, and along those lines are the scum of the earth. I have no sympathy for them.
Strangely enough, I find myself tending to agree with rmsharpe.....

 

[The Last Conformist]

I'm not immune to the primitive justice of an eye for an eye ... while the mean streak in me feels that execution is too nice for cold-headed murders - it takes some comfort in the fact that in the US, where most executions I hear about take place, capital punishment includes ~10 years on death row.

However, the reasonable part of me considers that the killing of a fellow human is only acceptable in self-defense, and I don't accept the line that killing an imprisoned criminal amounts to such. If societies need to protect itself is the issue, it can be achieved in other ways (knocking out a couple major organs and hooking up the convict to a 10 ton immobile life support system should do the trick!).

Add the risk of executing the innocent, for good measure.

I did vote for life without parole, but basically I think that that's a bad idea too - it leaves the convict not incentive for reform. And while psychopathic serial killers may be hopeless cases (tho I wouldn't be too sure - brainwashing and medication can twist someone's personality to irrecognizability), many murders carry no great risk of recidivism. I'm however also opposed to murders automatically getting out after x years as happens in our present system.

For rapists, I've always felt chemical castration to be a fitting punishment. One'd however have to consider the risk that they'd exact "revenge" on further innocents. (Stalinist solution: Castrate them, and then lock them up for life.)

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

In the US, and in its current form, the death penalty is a crappy punishment. The average stay on death row is 8 - 10 years, with a ton of appeals that could eventually get someone off. Also with the appeals process it cost significantly more for a person to be executed than to house them in a prison for life. So I voted let them live. If the death penalty was ever changed to be more efficent I would go with that, but in its current state, no.

 

[romelus]

Originally posted by The Last Conformist
For rapists, I've always felt chemical castration to be a fitting punishment. One'd however have to consider the risk that they'd exact "revenge" on further innocents. (Stalinist solution: Castrate them, and then lock them up for life.)

it's all about perspective. i think getting castrated is far more cruel than getting executed

which means execution by castration may be fitting for some murderers

 

[Zarn]

People should get life without parole. There is no need for murder, since they would already be away from society.

 

[Oruc]

once i was all for savage beatings everyday, but now im not so sure so its between: Beatings,Death and Enslavement ( which i got from rmsharpe ) the Enslavement option has the most benefits

 

[Smidlee]

a government has ever right to execute justice with capital punishment. The bible or Jesus Never rebuke or disapproved of capital punishment but Jesus did teach an individual shouldn't revenge themselves but let God deal with it. Duh! one of the main purpose of a government is to execute justice so someone doesn't have to take the law into their own hands. The thief on the cross admitted to the other thief that they was getting what they deserved which was capital punishment on a cross.

In the USA I have no problem with capital punishment itself but the corruption in our courts. I believe judicial system is the most corrupted and more like to abuse their power more than the other two branches of our government. So today everyone knows that only the poor convict get the death penalty while the weathly man can buy himself out of a murder charge. Capital punishment in itself can't work when the courtroom has become a joke.

 

[h4ppy]

I support the killing of criminals.

 

[Archer 007]

Originally posted by nonconformist
I voted life without parole, as it is closest to my opinion, which is life with parole for people who show that they have understood the gravity, but they should be permanantly under surveillance.
Also, the death sentence is criminal. Noone should have the right to take or give life. Especially if a person is wrongly convicted.
The worse punishment is that of a tortured mind, filled with self hate, guilt and sorrow.
Child molestors and rapists, and along those lines are the scum of the earth. I have no sympathy for them.
Strangely enough, I find myself tending to agree with rmsharpe.....

Letting them back on the streets is a crazy idea. They will most likely kill again.

 

[Sims2789]

Convicted murderers deserve death, as do rapists, child molestors, ect. However, I am against the death penalty since our judicial system convicts to many(over 0) innocent people.

 

[Octavian X]

I can't, in good conscience, support capital punishment in any way, shape, or form. It's simply wrong for any person to play the role of God, making such irrevocable choices of life or death.

No matter what you use this form of punishment for, it's just cruel. Read Franz Kafka's The Penal Colony to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

[Alvaro da Luna]

Why not just leave them in jail for life, their likelyhood of esccaping is nill at best.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Originally posted by romelus
it's all about perspective. i think getting castrated is far more cruel than getting executed

Avoiding cruelty does not rank among my reasons for opposing capital punishment.

Edit: Grammar.

 

[nonconformist]

Archer, I didn't say let all convicted murderers out, but rather those that were forced to under the circumstances, or other forms of spontsaneous, angry. Those that seem to be a benefit to society should mabe be released some day under intense supervision.
Remember: not all murderers reoffend.

 

[The Last Conformist]

*mispost*

 

[OzJeremy]

Originally posted by Civvin
Well I was just refering to the general 'eye for an eye' mentality.
Perhaps I should have said fundamentalist Christian upbringing, as I realize different religions have different values. Anyway going there will take us way off topic, maybe later on in the thread....

I was pretty sure Jesus said "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". And "Judge not lest ye be judged". And a couple of other things about overturning the old "eye for an eye" law of the old testament.

Fundamentally I have two problems with the death penalty:

1. executing innocent people by mistake - happens all the time in the US. You can try to recompense someone for time in prison, but you can't give them back their life if you've killed them. And the judicial system MAKES MISTAKES. There is never going to be any absolute certainty in these things. Certainly not enough to justify killing people.

2. I don't trust the state to execute people. That's not a power that should be wielded by our frankly imperfect political system. It's an open invitation to executions to pander to the mob. A bit like pontius pilate, really, if you're a fundamentalist christian.