Death Penalty Poll

[Bfgrn]

Police Chiefs on capital punishment

A national survey of police chiefs from around the country discredits the repeated assertion that the death penalty is an important law enforcement tool. While politicians have extolled the importance of capital punishment in fighting crime, they have failed to assess the actual priorities of those in law enforcement and have saddled the taxpayers with an enormously costly death penalty at the expense of more effective crime fighting strategies.

In January, 1995, Peter D. Hart Research Associates conducted a national opinion poll of randomly selected police chiefs in the United States. In that poll, the chiefs had the opportunity to express what they believe really works in fighting crime. They were asked where the death penalty fit in their priorities as leaders in the law enforcement field. What the police chiefs had to say may be surprising to many lawmakers, and to much of the public as well. The Hart Poll found that:

* Police chiefs rank the death penalty last as a way of reducing violent crime, placing it behind curbing drug abuse, more police officers on the streets, lowering the technical barriers to prosecution, longer sentences, and a better economy with more jobs.

* The death penalty was rated as the least cost-effective method for controlling crime.

* Insufficient use of the death penalty is not considered a major problem by the majority of police chiefs.

* Strengthening families and neighborhoods, punishing criminals swiftly and surely, controlling illegal drugs, and gun control are considered much more important than the death penalty.

* Although a majority of the police chiefs support the death penalty in the abstract, when given a choice between the sentence of life without parole plus restitution versus the death penalty, barely half of the chiefssupport capital punishment.

* Police chiefs do not believe that the death penalty significantly reduces the number of homicides.

* Police chiefs do not believe that murderers think about the range of possible punishments.

* Debates about the death penalty distract Congress and state legislatures from focusing on real solutions to crime.

More

 

[rightwinger]

Police Chiefs on capital punishment

A national survey of police chiefs from around the country discredits the repeated assertion that the death penalty is an important law enforcement tool. While politicians have extolled the importance of capital punishment in fighting crime, they have failed to assess the actual priorities of those in law enforcement and have saddled the taxpayers with an enormously costly death penalty at the expense of more effective crime fighting strategies.

In January, 1995, Peter D. Hart Research Associates conducted a national opinion poll of randomly selected police chiefs in the United States. In that poll, the chiefs had the opportunity to express what they believe really works in fighting crime. They were asked where the death penalty fit in their priorities as leaders in the law enforcement field. What the police chiefs had to say may be surprising to many lawmakers, and to much of the public as well. The Hart Poll found that:

* Police chiefs rank the death penalty last as a way of reducing violent crime, placing it behind curbing drug abuse, more police officers on the streets, lowering the technical barriers to prosecution, longer sentences, and a better economy with more jobs.

* The death penalty was rated as the least cost-effective method for controlling crime.

* Insufficient use of the death penalty is not considered a major problem by the majority of police chiefs.

* Strengthening families and neighborhoods, punishing criminals swiftly and surely, controlling illegal drugs, and gun control are considered much more important than the death penalty.

* Although a majority of the police chiefs support the death penalty in the abstract, when given a choice between the sentence of life without parole plus restitution versus the death penalty, barely half of the chiefssupport capital punishment.

* Police chiefs do not believe that the death penalty significantly reduces the number of homicides.

* Police chiefs do not believe that murderers think about the range of possible punishments.

* Debates about the death penalty distract Congress and state legislatures from focusing on real solutions to crime.

More

It is obvious that police chiefs are soft on crime.....

 

[rightwinger]

One of my favorite responses relating to the death penalty came from Charlie Rangel. They were debating tougher sentences to include a death penalty for drug offenses and Rangel said....

Do you really think they are afraid of the death penalty? The drug dealer down the street will kill you in a second, do you think they are afraid that the government might kill them in ten years?

 

[Missourian]

I have a feeling I'm going to stay a small minority as an anti-capital punishment conservative.

One of the leading reasons I am against capital punishment is because it is not administrated fairly. People who can afford good lawyers have so much better chance at getting out of it than poor people.

Since justice can't be blind, and since it does appear that people have been condemned to death who were innocent, I have slowly abandoned the capital punishment position I was raised to believe in.

I'm with you Amelia.

And not only for the reasons you have posted.

I am opposed to executing GUILTY people.

First, I think it is morally wrong to strap anyone to a table and murder them.

Second, after all the appeals, it will be years before a guilty person is executed.

The person you are executing has changed, they are not the same person that committed the crime, just as I am not the same person I was 10 years ago.

Third, in my opinion, killing is not justice, it's revenge

Both the Old and New Testament command that revenge is not for man:

Leviticus 19:18 "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.


Proverbs 20:22 Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.


Proverbs 24:29 Do not say, "I'll do to him as he has done to me; I'll pay that man back for what he did."


Hebrews 10:30 For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."


Romans 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.


Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord
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[Liability]

None of the poll choices capture my views on capital punishment.

I am a conservative.

Capital punishment is abysmal stuff.

But, it might still be needed in extraordinary circumstances from time to time.

If it were to be completely abolished, I'd be ok with that. But I'd still wonder: how do we stop a convicted multiple murderer, once locked away for life, from killing a prison guard or even a fellow inmate?

The law forbids isolating him more than 23 hours of a 24 hour day, generally speaking. In that one hour of time to which he is said to be "entitled" to the company of other humans, the risk is increased that he will kill (or try to kill) some other person.

What is the deterrent, then, to prevent him from this?

Doesn't there come SOME point where we have a right (akin to self defense) to put him out of our misery?

 

[OODA_Loop]

A man has to answer for the wicked he has done.

 

[DontBeStupid]

72% of those right leaning are for capital punishment
53% of those left leaning are anti capital punishment

or if you want

40% of those left leaning are pro capital punishment
19.4% of those right leaning are anti capital punishment

This poll is showing some interesting trends.

 

[KissMy]

I would rather see a guilty murder terminated, than see an innocent fetus aborted.

 

[Amelia]

A man has to answer for the wicked he has done.

I once heard a liberal atheist argue for the death penalty with pretty much those words. And we're talking liberal elite here. Academia. Ivory tower. She was a psychology professor at a campus where there were only like 3 conservative professors (myself being one of the 3, and her decidedly not).


I was sympathetic to mothers who killed their children while suffering from postpartum psychosis and a lack of help from the people who should have been their best support system. (Like, say, a husband who recognizes the symptoms but actively discourages the wife from getting psychiatric help.)

When a mother has lived a very loving life dedicated to her children snaps and does something so heinous after the birth of another child while apparently under the effect of chemicals which aren't usually in her body ... well, I've felt sympathy ... something had to be horribly wrong. And to me the death penalty was very wrong for someone who wasn't in her right mind. To me even life in prison was wrong because if the woman avoided becoming pregnant again I didn't think she would be a threat to society.

I had a position that went something like "God will judge their hearts" but that on a practical basis, "I don't think that the death penalty would be a deterrent for other women suffering from that problem, and I don't think death was needed to stop the woman from doing it again, and so it would be about revenge, not deterrence."



But the liberal atheist specifically wanted the death penalty because she didn't believe in God and she wanted revenge. A child's life was taken and there was no God to make the mother pay, so this atheist wanted the government to make her pay.



I was very surprised to hear that from someone whom I would have expected would feel that the death penalty was inhumane.

 

[DontBeStupid]

I would rather see a guilty murder terminated, than see an innocent fetus aborted.

 

[Big Black Dog]

I believe strongly in the death penalty. The only problem I have with it is that it takes years for a person who is guilty to be put to death.

 

[MarcATL]

72% of those right leaning are for capital punishment
53% of those left leaning are anti capital punishment

or if you want

40% of those left leaning are pro capital punishment
19.4% of those right leaning are anti capital punishment

This poll is showing some interesting trends.

or if you want...

64% of all polled are pro capital punishment.

 

[DontBeStupid]

72% of those right leaning are for capital punishment
53% of those left leaning are anti capital punishment

or if you want

40% of those left leaning are pro capital punishment
19.4% of those right leaning are anti capital punishment

This poll is showing some interesting trends.

or if you want...

64% of all polled are pro capital punishment.

True. I was thinking of it more in how people on either side are falling in line with the stereotype of that side. For example, right now, 74% of those claiming to be right leaning are also pro capital punishment. But, only 53% of those claiming to be left leaning fit the stereotype and are anti capital punishment.

It gets even more interesting when you look at the flip side. 35% of those left leaning buck the stereotype and are pro capital punishment, while only 18% of those right leaning buck the trend on the other side.

It makes me wonder if many conservatives are pro capital punishment because they feel they have to be because they're conservative. Know what I mean?

 

[OODA_Loop]

It makes me wonder if many conservatives are pro capital punishment because they feel they have to be because they're conservative. Know what I mean?

Sure most are for punishing pre-meditated murderers after due process soley to be one of the kewl conservative kids.

 

[Cuyo]

A man has to answer for the wicked he has done.

Should they take all the rope in Texas and find a tall oak tree?

 

[Charles_Main]

I don't understand people who claim the government is incompetent at everything that it does, but still willingly give the government power to kill.

Most courts that hand down such rulings are local or State Courts. I trust Local Government a hell of a lot more than the Federal Government.

 

[OODA_Loop]

A man has to answer for the wicked he has done.

Should they take all the rope in Texas and find a tall oak tree?

willie for prez

 

[Charles_Main]

I'm for the death penalty in the case of heinous crimes.

But the bar should be raised from reasonable doubt to beyond all doubt in the sentencing stage.

Damnit! We agree again. Shit

I know what is happening here LOL, I agree too.

Though I am not sure you can ever have No doubt at all.

I would limit it to Cases where there is Hard and Fast Evidence, Preferably DNA based. In which the Perpetrator committed a particularly Heinous Crime.

I would not limit that to Murder though. I think there are cases of Child Abuse, and Rape which I would support the Death Penalty as well.

 

[Charles_Main]

The death penalty is an archaic custom

The US is one of the few nations on earth to still use it.

Muslim extremists, the US, China and India are the remaining few

There are a lot of Countries that don't have the Death Penalty, Yet they treat prisoners pretty badly, So bad in fact some might think Killing them is more Humane.

 

[DontBeStupid]

It makes me wonder if many conservatives are pro capital punishment because they feel they have to be because they're conservative. Know what I mean?

Sure most are for punishing pre-meditated murderers after due process soley to be one of the kewl conservative kids.

I wouldn't have phrased it like that, but yes, basically. It seems like, if someone wants to be "right leaning" they have to believe in capital punishment. I wonder if they same would hold true for abortion and gun control.