Would you be able to execute somebody sentenced to death?

[Urederra]

This thread made me think about the executioner, rather than about the executed. Do you think it is a job that everybody can do?

If you were the executioner, would you have moral issues after killing a person?

Would you be able to execute a person? Are there any circumstances where you won't be able to execute him/her? What if you interviewed him beforehand? and if he/she is a political prisoner sentenced to death?

I'll try to make a poll, so you can answer the question in the title.

EDIT: Uh... for the Yes voters, What type of execution would you prefer to perform?

 

[azzaman333]

Not everyone could do it, although i'd be mildly confident that if i had to i would be able to.

 

[Mr Moron]

I certainly wouldn't do it. The death penalty is foolish and wasteful, I'm certainly not going to go through with a punishment I don't agree with. Isn’t my job anyway, sure there are of barbarians out there willing to do it if it’s gonna happen may as well let them do it.

 

[ChrTh]

I only execute the innocent


...ok, not really, but I thought it'd be fun to type.

 

[skadistic]

I could do it no problem if the person desrved it (child rapers, murderers, rapists, and drunk drivers who cause great harm and death) a political prisoner not likely unless it was a liberal commy hippy

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

I would not do it, even it was the evil bin Laden, as I am morally opposed to the death penalty. If I met him in combat and he refused to surrender, however, I wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

 

[CaptainF]

Depends who it was. If it was someone that caused me, a friend or a family member great harm, i'm fairly certain I would be able to execute the dirtbag. A quick shot to the temple, or pulling the lever on the gallows.

If it was someone who didn't commit a crime that affected me personally, it would be harder to do. That is, unless the crime was especially heinous.

However, I am absolutely certain that I could not kill a political prisoner or something like that. Even if they were a KKK Nazi fascist hatemonger/ violent communist bloody anarcho atheist. I just couldn't do it.

I say this as someone opposed to the death penalty.

 

[warpus]

You'd have to ask me right there and then - to make a decision now would be immoral.

 

[GenMarshall]

No, I cannot execute somebody sentence to death for it goes against my morals of "thou shall not kill". Unless I am faced with a life-threatening situation when I need to kill someone in self-defense when I am cornered and my own life is at risk.

"...the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

--Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995


"Crime is both a manifestation of the great mysteries of evil and human freedom and an aspect of the very complex reality that is contemporary society. We should not expect simple or easy solutions to what is a profound evil, and even less should we rely on capital punishment to provide such a solution."

--U.S. Catholic Bishops, Statement on Capital Punishment, 1980

 

[Spartan117]

it all comes down to emotions and opinions...at the time

@ Dawgphood001 just a question hmmm. what if that political group that the political prisoner was associated with led to the death of someone you knew and care about? just kidding though

i think the system in determing death for the death penalty is not a good system nor will it ever be so i am against the death penalty.. who gets to decide killing a X person is morally worse then killing any other X person? or what crimes should the death penalty apply to... it is just to complicated and can not logically be worked out and the death penalty will always be about opinion

i am conflicted as i am trying to become officer in marine corp but i think it is morally wrong with just being able to execute somebody in cold blood regardless the reason in which they should be executed .. but yet i am trying to be an officer in marine corp, a bit contradicting

 

[DBear]

For people like Tookie Williams or Moussoui, I would pay money to flip the switch.

 

[aussieboy]

I oppose the death penalty. So I would not execute anyone, for fear of excommunication.

 

[GenMarshall]

I oppose the death penalty. So I would not execute anyone, for fear of excommunication.

Erm, only if you go through the procedure of abortion would you be excommunicated. You are only excommunicated if you go through the abortion as a woman, operate in the abortion, or supporting abortion.

But killing people is not an excommunicatable offense. Much rather, the death penalty is a mortal sin. Capital punishment violates the fifth commandment.

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

You shall not kill - Ex 20:13
You have heard that it was said to the men of old, "You shall not kill: and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment." But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment - Mt 5:21-22

Catechism of the Catholic Church: Fifth Commandment @ United States Confrence of Catholic Bishops

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

I don't think I could kill someone, even a mass-murderer.

 

[CartesianFart]

I voted no.

 

[warpus]

To be honest, I would probably be able to kill somebody like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.

You'd have to do some pretty messed up $&!$7% to make me want to kill you though.

 

[MjM]

If it was my job. I don't know if they still do this, but if you just have to shoot your gun once, and there is about 7 shooters, one gun is a blank. Its at random. Its put there so the persons killing the death awaitee may actually not be doing anything, helps them cope with it.

 

[CartesianFart]

If i use my savage instincts,i would choose the weapon of the gun to blow the brains out of the executionee.This is more of a soldier's death (which is more humanely honourable )instead of clinically killing them in lethal injection or such insane barbarous act of guillotine,and electrocution to name a few.

 

[.Shane.]

There's no accurate poll option for me.

I could. I could easily summon the will. But, ethically, I wouldn't.

 

[amadeus]

Yes. Considering that someone would simply take my place if I refuse doesn't change the fact that he would be executed.