Capital Punishment - Right or Wrong?

[The Illusion]

Fine by me. In that case the government is not taking the person's life, it's the individual's choice.

As long as they get food, water and proper medical care they can kill themselves all they want (small joke).

Hes just mocking me because hes butt hurt about his a** being handed to him in the suicide thread in Society Forum.

Jamie

 

[alan1]

I disagree with the death penalty for a few reasons:

1) There is the possibility in many cases that the person is innocent. You can release someone from prison, but you can't undeath them. If the government has the power to legally, if accidentally, take away someone's life then that is not a power the government needs.

2) The cost. The cost of executing someone is much higher than throwing them in prison for life with no possibility of parole. The lawyers, the appeals, the stays, the boilerplate lawsuits etc. all come out of the taxpayers pocket.

3) It is not a deterrent. Anyone who argues that it is is not living in reality.

Now, I do believe that we need to hand down the punishment of life in prison with no parole a heck of a lot more often than we do. A LOT more. Put it this way, in my book anyone convicted of murder wouldn't be getting out of prison. Ever. And prisons need to be much less pleasant a place than they are. No TV's, no gyms, no socializing with other prisoners, no libraries. I want them miserable and caged.

Point #2 is a classic logical fallacy.
The cost of executing is not more than the cost of housing them for a life sentence. The cost of court appeals may be, but that is a totally different cost.

Not a logical fallacy unless you can show that it is the norm to have an execution WITHOUT appeals.

It's all rolled into one. It's intellectually dishonest to seperate them.

No, it's intellectually dis-honest to claim that the cost of executing a criminal is cheaper than housing them for a lifetime when you are actually arguing court costs. They are two entirely different things.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Point #2 is a classic logical fallacy.
The cost of executing is not more than the cost of housing them for a life sentence. The cost of court appeals may be, but that is a totally different cost.

Not a logical fallacy unless you can show that it is the norm to have an execution WITHOUT appeals.

It's all rolled into one. It's intellectually dishonest to seperate them.

No, it's intellectually dis-honest to claim that the cost of executing a criminal is cheaper than housing them for a lifetime when you are actually arguing court costs. They are two entirely different things.

Court and legal costs are part of the execution. There's no way to separate them. It's a legal matter to execute someone.

 

[The Illusion]

Point #2 is a classic logical fallacy.
The cost of executing is not more than the cost of housing them for a life sentence. The cost of court appeals may be, but that is a totally different cost.

Not a logical fallacy unless you can show that it is the norm to have an execution WITHOUT appeals.

It's all rolled into one. It's intellectually dishonest to seperate them.

No, it's intellectually dis-honest to claim that the cost of executing a criminal is cheaper than housing them for a lifetime when you are actually arguing court costs. They are two entirely different things.

I dont think so. I think hes right on about the cost. It costs more to execute someone than it does to make them sit in prison the rest of their lives. You are actually getting more out of the prisoner because they are working for nothing to support the people on the outside. They have to do hard work and create things that they would normally be getting paid top dollar for in a factory.. where in prison they are only making 25 - 35 cents an hour.

Its called the prison industry. It costs $55.09 on average per day or $20,108 per year to keep an inmate in prison. Statistics in Brief - Inmate Cost Per Day

In 1989, the state of Florida executed 42-year-old Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to 28 murders in four states. During his nine years on death row, he received three stays of execution. Before he was put to death in the electric chair, Bundy cost taxpayers more than $5 million.

Read more: Capital Punishment - The Costs Of Capital Punishment


Jamie

 

[RadiomanATL]

Fine by me. In that case the government is not taking the person's life, it's the individual's choice.

As long as they get food, water and proper medical care they can kill themselves all they want (small joke).

Hes just mocking me because hes butt hurt about his a** being handed to him in the suicide thread in Society Forum.

Jamie

Don't bring up crap from other threads.

 

[The Illusion]

Cons of Capital Punishment

* If we execute a person, what is the difference between us and the criminal who has committed the horrifying crime of killing another individual.
* Capital punishment is not always just and appropriate. Usually, it has been seen that poor people have to succumb to death penalty as they cannot afford good lawyers to defend their stance. There are very rare cases of rich people being pronounced capital punishment. Also, an individual from minority communities are more likely to be given death penalty.
* Every human being is entitled to receive a second chance in life. Putting a convict behind bars is always a logical option than killing him, as there is a chance that he may improve. People who have served life sentences are reported to have bettered their earlier ways of living and have made worthwhile contribution to the society.
* There is also a chance that an individual is innocent and is wrongly charged for a crime he has never committed. There have been cases where individuals were released after being given death sentence, because they were proved innocent. There are also cases where a person's innocence was proved after he was put to death. Hence, it is best to avoid executing a person.
* It is reported that there is no relation between capital punishment and crime rate i.e giving death penalty does not decrease crime rate in the society. Crimes are prevalent in countries where capital punishment exists and also where it has been abolished.

Read More at: 10 Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment

 

[Liability]

Cons of Capital Punishment

* * * *
* It is reported that there is no relation between capital punishment and crime rate i.e giving death penalty does not decrease crime rate in the society. Crimes are prevalent in countries where capital punishment exists and also where it has been abolished.

Read More at: 10 Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment

Fallacy.

100% of the folks who have been executed never commit another murder -- or any other crime for that matter.

 

[alan1]

Not a logical fallacy unless you can show that it is the norm to have an execution WITHOUT appeals.

It's all rolled into one. It's intellectually dishonest to seperate them.

No, it's intellectually dis-honest to claim that the cost of executing a criminal is cheaper than housing them for a lifetime when you are actually arguing court costs. They are two entirely different things.

I dont think so. I think hes right on about the cost. It costs more to execute someone than it does to make them sit in prison the rest of their lives. You are actually getting more out of the prisoner because they are working for nothing to support the people on the outside. They have to do hard work and create things that they would normally be getting paid top dollar for in a factory.. where in prison they are only making 25 - 35 cents an hour.

Its called the prison industry. It costs $55.09 on average per day or $20,108 per year to keep an inmate in prison. Statistics in Brief - Inmate Cost Per Day

In 1989, the state of Florida executed 42-year-old Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to 28 murders in four states. During his nine years on death row, he received three stays of execution. Before he was put to death in the electric chair, Bundy cost taxpayers more than $5 million.

Read more: Capital Punishment - The Costs Of Capital Punishment


Jamie

Look at your own statistics.
$5 million in court costs, not $5 million for the lethal injection, not $5 million to house and feed him. It's painfully obvious that the $5 million was spent on court costs trying to keep an admitted murderer alive when a $500 lethal injection was all that was needed. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. Maybe Radioman and you live in the same illusion.

 

[The Illusion]

No, it's intellectually dis-honest to claim that the cost of executing a criminal is cheaper than housing them for a lifetime when you are actually arguing court costs. They are two entirely different things.

I dont think so. I think hes right on about the cost. It costs more to execute someone than it does to make them sit in prison the rest of their lives. You are actually getting more out of the prisoner because they are working for nothing to support the people on the outside. They have to do hard work and create things that they would normally be getting paid top dollar for in a factory.. where in prison they are only making 25 - 35 cents an hour.

Its called the prison industry. It costs $55.09 on average per day or $20,108 per year to keep an inmate in prison. Statistics in Brief - Inmate Cost Per Day

In 1989, the state of Florida executed 42-year-old Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to 28 murders in four states. During his nine years on death row, he received three stays of execution. Before he was put to death in the electric chair, Bundy cost taxpayers more than $5 million.

Read more: Capital Punishment - The Costs Of Capital Punishment


Jamie

Look at your own statistics.
$5 million in court costs, not $5 million for the lethal injection, not $5 million to house and feed him. It's painfully obvious that the $5 million was spent on court costs trying to keep an admitted murderer alive when a $500 lethal injection was all that was needed. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. Maybe Radioman and you live in the same illusion.

The two are inseparable. There is always going to be court costs when dealing with capital punishment.

Jamie

 

[RadiomanATL]

No, it's intellectually dis-honest to claim that the cost of executing a criminal is cheaper than housing them for a lifetime when you are actually arguing court costs. They are two entirely different things.

I dont think so. I think hes right on about the cost. It costs more to execute someone than it does to make them sit in prison the rest of their lives. You are actually getting more out of the prisoner because they are working for nothing to support the people on the outside. They have to do hard work and create things that they would normally be getting paid top dollar for in a factory.. where in prison they are only making 25 - 35 cents an hour.

Its called the prison industry. It costs $55.09 on average per day or $20,108 per year to keep an inmate in prison. Statistics in Brief - Inmate Cost Per Day

In 1989, the state of Florida executed 42-year-old Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to 28 murders in four states. During his nine years on death row, he received three stays of execution. Before he was put to death in the electric chair, Bundy cost taxpayers more than $5 million.

Read more: Capital Punishment - The Costs Of Capital Punishment


Jamie

Look at your own statistics.
$5 million in court costs, not $5 million for the lethal injection, not $5 million to house and feed him. It's painfully obvious that the $5 million was spent on court costs trying to keep an admitted murderer alive when a $500 lethal injection was all that was needed. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. Maybe Radioman and you live in the same illusion.

Really? I mean....really?

Do you really think that the argument over costs is about the cost of the actual injection versus housing and keeping an inmate for life? That's never been the argument, and you know it man.

Please MM. I know you're not stupid like some people here. Everyone who argues costs is referring to the whole package. Court and all. Pretending that they're not doing so is beneath you.

 

[alan1]

I dont think so. I think hes right on about the cost. It costs more to execute someone than it does to make them sit in prison the rest of their lives. You are actually getting more out of the prisoner because they are working for nothing to support the people on the outside. They have to do hard work and create things that they would normally be getting paid top dollar for in a factory.. where in prison they are only making 25 - 35 cents an hour.

Its called the prison industry. It costs $55.09 on average per day or $20,108 per year to keep an inmate in prison. Statistics in Brief - Inmate Cost Per Day

In 1989, the state of Florida executed 42-year-old Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to 28 murders in four states. During his nine years on death row, he received three stays of execution. Before he was put to death in the electric chair, Bundy cost taxpayers more than $5 million.

Read more: Capital Punishment - The Costs Of Capital Punishment


Jamie

Look at your own statistics.
$5 million in court costs, not $5 million for the lethal injection, not $5 million to house and feed him. It's painfully obvious that the $5 million was spent on court costs trying to keep an admitted murderer alive when a $500 lethal injection was all that was needed. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. Maybe Radioman and you live in the same illusion.

Really? I mean....really?

Do you really think that the argument over costs is about the cost of the actual injection versus housing and keeping an inmate for life? That's never been the argument, and you know it man.

Please MM. I know you're not stupid like some people here. Everyone who argues costs is referring to the whole package. Court and all. Pretending that they're not doing so is beneath you.

Incorrect my airwaves friend. It is only those that oppose the death penalty that try and use the court costs as an argument to justify their position that the death penalty is more costly than life in prison.
Name an overturned death sentence that wasn't just as costly as an un-overturned death sentence within the court system, then compare and contrast the costs post-trial. Which do you think is more?

 

[Missourian]

I do not support capital punishment for these reasons:


1) The capital punishment system we currently employ is totally subjective, haphazard, unjust and arbitrary. Serial killers get life sentences while folks like the fella BFGN cited receive the death penalty.

2) Capitol punishment has no deterrent value.

3) Incarceration protects society and punishes the guilty. For the state to take the life of a person who is no longer a danger to society is clearly murder for revenge.

4) Killing a person 5, 10, or 20 years after they committed a crime, you are not killing the same person who committed that crime.

5) Since 1976, the year the death penalty was reinstated, 82 people have been released from death row. That's 1 released for every 7 executed.


I totally agree that our prison system needs reform.

Prisoners should lead a spartan existence. I like Joe Arpaio's ideas on what prison should be like. No TV except Weather Channel and Disney, no air conditioning, no coffee, no porn magazines, no weights, no smoking, no beds...only cots, not even a pillow and prisoners work at society enhancing activities including a no kill animal shelter.

And the lowest recidivism rate in the country Joe Arpaio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Look at your own statistics.
$5 million in court costs, not $5 million for the lethal injection, not $5 million to house and feed him. It's painfully obvious that the $5 million was spent on court costs trying to keep an admitted murderer alive when a $500 lethal injection was all that was needed. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. Maybe Radioman and you live in the same illusion.

Really? I mean....really?

Do you really think that the argument over costs is about the cost of the actual injection versus housing and keeping an inmate for life? That's never been the argument, and you know it man.

Please MM. I know you're not stupid like some people here. Everyone who argues costs is referring to the whole package. Court and all. Pretending that they're not doing so is beneath you.

Incorrect my airwaves friend. It is only those that oppose the death penalty that try and use the court costs as an argument to justify their position that the death penalty is more costly than life in prison.
Name an overturned death sentence that wasn't just as costly as an un-overturned death sentence within the court system, then compare and contrast the costs post-trial. Which do you think is more?

Not sure what you're trying to say here.

Bottom line is that it costs the taxpayers more to carry out a death penalty sentence to its end than does a life without possibility of parole sentencing. (Are the semantics in that sentence better?)

 

[Bfgrn]

No, it's intellectually dis-honest to claim that the cost of executing a criminal is cheaper than housing them for a lifetime when you are actually arguing court costs. They are two entirely different things.

I dont think so. I think hes right on about the cost. It costs more to execute someone than it does to make them sit in prison the rest of their lives. You are actually getting more out of the prisoner because they are working for nothing to support the people on the outside. They have to do hard work and create things that they would normally be getting paid top dollar for in a factory.. where in prison they are only making 25 - 35 cents an hour.

Its called the prison industry. It costs $55.09 on average per day or $20,108 per year to keep an inmate in prison. Statistics in Brief - Inmate Cost Per Day

In 1989, the state of Florida executed 42-year-old Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to 28 murders in four states. During his nine years on death row, he received three stays of execution. Before he was put to death in the electric chair, Bundy cost taxpayers more than $5 million.

Read more: Capital Punishment - The Costs Of Capital Punishment


Jamie

Look at your own statistics.
$5 million in court costs, not $5 million for the lethal injection, not $5 million to house and feed him. It's painfully obvious that the $5 million was spent on court costs trying to keep an admitted murderer alive when a $500 lethal injection was all that was needed. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. Maybe Radioman and you live in the same illusion.

And maybe you'd be better living under a dictator...it's obvious you don't understand what's involved living in a free society...YOU already KNOW who is guilty and who is not...

Not ONLY does the barbaric death penalty cost MUCH more, it makes our society LESS safe...


*California Could Save $1 Billion in 5 Years By Eliminating Death Penalty

Using conservative rough projections, the Commission estimates the annual costs of the present (death penalty) system to be $137 million per year.

The cost of a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty would be $11.5 million per year.


*New Study Reveals Maryland Pays $37 Million for One Execution


*Florida would save $51 million each year by punishing all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole


Police Chief Says Death Penalty Hurting Public Safety
Posted: December 22, 2008

Ray Samuels, a police officer for 33 years and Chief of Police in Newark, California, for 5 years, recently expressed concern that state budget cuts will prevent important crime-fighting measures from being passed, while an expensive death penalty continues to drain the state's finances. In an op-ed in the Contra Costa Times, Samuels wrote:

Local jurisdictions are likely to lose a significant amount of state funding this year because of the severe financial crisis. This funding helps cities and counties provide essential services in the areas of public safety, emergency services, and health and children's services. Without it, our communities will no doubt suffer dire consequences. At the same time, we continue to waste hundreds of millions on the state's dysfunctional death penalty. If we replaced the death penalty with a sentence of permanent imprisonment, the state would save more than $125 million each year. We haven't had an execution in California for three years. Are we any less safe as a result? I don't think so.

Chief Samuels also expressed concern that the state refused to pass measures to to help prevent wrongful convictions in death penalty cases because the reforms would be too costly. Because of the risks and costs associated with capital punishment, he recommended that the state turn to to alternative punishments like life without parole: "Let's cut our losses and move on," he wrote. The entire op-ed follows:

Death Penalty Information Center

 

[Liability]

I do not support capital punishment for these reasons:


1) The capital punishment system we currently employ is totally subjective, haphazard, unjust and arbitrary. Serial killers get life sentences while folks like the fella BFGN cited receive the death penalty.

No it isn't totally subjective. But there is too much subjectivity in it, perhaps.

2) Capit[a]l punishment has no deterrent value.

Wrong. Thee are two main kinds of deterrence in legal theory. One is general and the other is specific. The data does NOT establish that it has no general deterrent value. More to the point, though, the death penalty ALWAYS and necessarily has a very specific deterrent value. Anyone put to death will NEVER kill anybody else again.

3) Incarceration protects society and punishes the guilty. For the state to take the life of a person who is no longer a danger to society is clearly murder for revenge.

Retribution is akin to revenge, but it is also perfectly appropriate.

4) Killing a person 5, 10, or 20 years after they committed a crime, you are not killing the same person who committed that crime.

Same guilty person. Just older. Delayed punishment is still punishment.

5) Since 1976, the year the death penalty was reinstated, 82 people have been released from death row. That's 1 released for every 7 executed.

That's not a good argument against putting down the guilty ones.

I totally agree that our prison system needs reform.

Prisoners should lead a spartan existence. I like Joe Arpaio's ideas on what prison should be like. No TV except Weather Channel and Disney, no air conditioning, no coffee, no porn magazines, no weights, no smoking, no beds...only cots, not even a pillow and prisoners work at society enhancing activities including a no kill animal shelter.

And the lowest recidivism rate in the country Joe Arpaio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Until our budz in the ACLU get some liberal activist judge to declare that it's cruel and unusal punishment to be forced to wear pink and live a spartan lifestyle....

 

[Bfgrn]

Recent Cost Studies

* A 2003 legislative audit in Kansas found that the estimated cost of a death penalty case was 70% more than the cost of a comparable non-death penalty case. Death penalty case costs were counted through to execution (median cost $1.26 million). Non-death penalty case costs were counted through to the end of incarceration (median cost $740,000).
(December 2003 Survey by the Kansas Legislative Post Audit)

* In Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.
(2004 Report from Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research)

* In Maryland death penalty cases cost 3 times more than non-death penalty cases, or $3 million for a single case.
(Urban Institute, The Cost of the Death Penalty in Maryland, March 2008)

* In California the current sytem costs $137 million per year; it would cost $11.5 million for a system without the death penalty.
(California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice, July 2008)

The greatest costs associated with the death penalty occur prior to and during trial, not in post-conviction proceedings. Even if all post-conviction proceedings (appeals) were abolished, the death penalty would still be more expensive than alternative sentences.

* Trials in which the prosecutor is seeking a death sentence have two separate and distinct phases: conviction (guilt/innocence) and sentencing. Special motions and extra time for jury selection typically precede such trials.

* More investigative costs are generally incurred in capital cases, particularly by the prosecution.

* When death penalty trials result in a verdict less than death or are reversed, taxpayers first incur all the extra costs of capital pretrial and trial proceedings and must then also pay either for the cost of incarcerating the prisoner for life or the costs of a retrial (which often leads to a life sentence).

The death penalty diverts resources from genuine crime control measures. Spending money on the death penalty system means:

* Reducing the resources available for crime prevention, mental health treatment, education and rehabilitation, meaningful victims' services, and drug treatment programs.

* Diverting it from existing components of the criminal justice system, such as prosecutions of drug crimes, domestic violence, and child abuse.

Death Penalty Cost

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Our justice system isn't perfect which means that innocent people are going to die for crimes they never committed. On that point alone I have to oppose capital punishment. However, I don't think anybody has the right to kill anybody else regardless of what they've done, and I certainly don't think that the state should have the right to kill people.

 

[Bfgrn]

Thomas Jefferson said: "It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape."

If you are going to continue supporting the death penalty, then you MUST morally justify a case where ONE single innocent human being is put to death in error...

You'll have to find SOME grounds to justify it...OTHERWISE it is premeditated MURDER.

What statists like Liability are oblivious to is that our justice system, from arrest to sentence is fraught with human foible, error and prejudice (not just skin color. i.e. economic) ANYONE can pontificate on punishment of a guilty person, BUT you need to be VERY skeptical on how that guilt is arrived at.

Judges and District Attorneys are ELECTED officials...they often run on their "tough on crime" record...which MEANS public perception trumps the truth.

There are numerous cases where a conscientious detective uncovers evidence after someone has been convicted of a crime proving they have the wrong person, only to find themselves being harassed and threatened and told to let it go... DA's and Judges NEVER want to admit they convicted the wrong person...they put themselves, their reputation and their career ahead of justice and truth.

**********

"Twenty years have passed since this Court declared that the death penalty must be imposed fairly, and with reasonable consistency, or not at all, and, despite the effort of the states and courts to devise legal formulas and procedural rules to meet this daunting challenge, the death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice, and mistake." U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, February 22, 1994


Factors contributing to the arbitrariness of the death penalty:

* Ninety-five percent of death row inmates cannot afford their own attorney. Court-appointed attorneys often lack the experience necessary for capital trials and are overworked and underpaid. In the most extreme cases, some have slept through parts of trials or have arrived under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

* Prosecutors seek the death penalty far more frequently when the victim of a homicide is white than when the victim is African-American or of another ethnic/racial origin.

* Co-defendants charged with committing the same crime often receive different punishments, where one defendant may receive a death sentence while another receives prison time.

* Approximately two percent of those convicted of crimes that make them eligible for the death penalty actually receive a death sentence.

* Each prosecutor decides whether or not to seek the death penalty. Local politics, the location of the crime, plea bargaining, and pure chance affect the process and make it a lottery of who lives and who dies.

* GEOGRAPHIC ARBITRARINESS: Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 80% of all executions have taken place in the South. The Northeast accounts for less than 2% of executions.

Death Penalty and Arbitrariness

 

[Buster Beez]

Christians who supports capital punishment are hypocrites.
Muslims who support capital punishment are called good sharia law abiding muslims.
Jews are called snake people regardless of their stand on capital punishment.

 

[The Illusion]

Thomas Jefferson said: "It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape."

If you are going to continue supporting the death penalty, then you MUST morally justify a case where ONE single innocent human being is put to death in error...

You'll have to find SOME grounds to justify it...OTHERWISE it is premeditated MURDER.

What statists like Liability are oblivious to is that our justice system, from arrest to sentence is fraught with human foible, error and prejudice (not just skin color. i.e. economic) ANYONE can pontificate on punishment of a guilty person, BUT you need to be VERY skeptical on how that guilt is arrived at.

Judges and District Attorneys are ELECTED officials...they often run on their "tough on crime" record...which MEANS public perception trumps the truth.

There are numerous cases where a conscientious detective uncovers evidence after someone has been convicted of a crime proving they have the wrong person, only to find themselves being harassed and threatened and told to let it go... DA's and Judges NEVER want to admit they convicted the wrong person...they put themselves, their reputation and their career ahead of justice and truth.

**********

"Twenty years have passed since this Court declared that the death penalty must be imposed fairly, and with reasonable consistency, or not at all, and, despite the effort of the states and courts to devise legal formulas and procedural rules to meet this daunting challenge, the death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice, and mistake." U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, February 22, 1994


Factors contributing to the arbitrariness of the death penalty:

* Ninety-five percent of death row inmates cannot afford their own attorney. Court-appointed attorneys often lack the experience necessary for capital trials and are overworked and underpaid. In the most extreme cases, some have slept through parts of trials or have arrived under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

* Prosecutors seek the death penalty far more frequently when the victim of a homicide is white than when the victim is African-American or of another ethnic/racial origin.

* Co-defendants charged with committing the same crime often receive different punishments, where one defendant may receive a death sentence while another receives prison time.

* Approximately two percent of those convicted of crimes that make them eligible for the death penalty actually receive a death sentence.

* Each prosecutor decides whether or not to seek the death penalty. Local politics, the location of the crime, plea bargaining, and pure chance affect the process and make it a lottery of who lives and who dies.

* GEOGRAPHIC ARBITRARINESS: Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 80% of all executions have taken place in the South. The Northeast accounts for less than 2% of executions.

Death Penalty and Arbitrariness

This leads me to a question.....the judges and jury that convicts someone who is later found to be innocent, but has been put to death - they should be suffering the consequences for the innocent person's death. It IS premeditated murder afterall. They should be standing trial then as well imo.

Jamie