Death penalty - Your opinion

[Charly]

Hello guys,
I'm doing a research for school at the moment with the topic "Death penalty in America". The main part of it should be a comparison between german/european and american attitudes.
So here's my question, do you approve or do you deny and why?

I'd highly appreciate if you could post your opinions here.

By the way,
the reason for making a new topic even though it's already on the board is because my teacher mentioned i have to prove that I collected those information by myself.

 

[Spiderman]

I would concede to the death penalty if conviction standards for death penalty cases were more stringent than the beyond a reasonable doubt that is currently used.

If a man is going to be killed I would want 100% certainty that he was guilty.

 

[strollingbones]

i am against the death penalty as applied in the us......you have different execution appeals and dates under different laws etc....you have people going to execution after 2 years and some spending decades on death row

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Support the death penalty.

Think it should be expanded in fact to include drunk driving fatalities, and vehicular homocide incidents in general, especially in the cases of those fleeing from police. As well as any case where you unlawfully take another's life, accidentaly or not - they're still dead and fucked. Apologies and motives don't change that reality so for justice to exist, the offender must die.

Without fear of punishment, justice doesn't exist.

 

[Disir]

I am against the DP as there is no 100% certainty all across the board. People have a tendency to believe that because it is automatically appealed then the case is retried. It is not. They are looking for procedural error. Eyewitness errors, snitch testimonies and such are still used in the US and this had led to exonerations of those wrongly convicted. Illinois is still dealing with the repercussions of the use of torture in obtaining confessions. The Reid interrogation method is also very questionable.

 

[Spiderman]

Support the death penalty.

Think it should be expanded in fact to include drunk driving fatalities, and vehicular homocide incidents in general, especially in the cases of those fleeing from police. As well as any case where you unlawfully take another's life, accidentaly or not - they're still dead and fucked. Apologies and motives don't change that reality so for justice to exist, the offender must die.

There has to be intent to kill.

I could accidentally hit a guy in the head with a golf ball and kill him.

Death penalty?

 

[Katzndogz]

I fully support the death penalty. Unlike others on this board, I have actually met death row inmates. The only thing wrong with the death penalty is that it takes too long to administer. Most deaths on death row are from natural causes.

Whenever an individual exhibits joy or some kind of satisfaction in the act of killing they should be put down like any other dangerous animal.

 

[martybegan]

The death penalty should be for:

1. Pre-meditated murder
2. Murder of peace officers
3. Serial killers
4. Murder in the commission of another felony.
5. Mass killings regardless of intent.

 

[boedicca]

I used to think that the Death Penalty was appropriate for certain heinous crimes involving premeditated murder (not crimes of passion).

But in the recent era of our government abusing its power, I no longer trust it will uphold The Constitution. There is too much of a risk of political inconvenient, yet innocent people, being executed by the government.

And then there's the growing incompetency of the government to consider....

 

[Meathead]

The death penalty should be for:

1. Pre-meditated murder
2. Murder of peace officers
3. Serial killers
4. Murder in the commission of another felony.
5. Mass killings regardless of intent.

I would add to that murders of minors, especially pre-teens.

 

[Pogo]

No.

I agree with Boedicca, except I don't believe any government anywhere has ever been qualified to take a life. Too easy for the system to manipulate false accusation. Way too easy. Nor does the State have that right anyway. When the State can also create a life, I'll reconsider.

 

[DGS49]

The DP is entirely appropriate for certain types of crimes, and we have Congress and the state legislatures to speak for The People and decide what those crimes are.

However, under the American system of criminal "justice," it has become possible for any renegade judge with a personal opposition to the DP to thwart the entire system and defeat the rightful intentions of the legislature, prosecutors, trial judges, juries, and in fact the Founding Fathers. Look at the cluster **** we are now witnessing because a pharmaceutical company has decided to stop producing the "favorite" execution drug. Can you believe this? ACLU lawyers and sympathetic judges have ruled that it is "unconstitutional" to make someone undergo discomfort while we are rightfully executing them. Is any further evidence needed that the lunatics are running the assylum?

And this sorry situation will not be resolved in our lifetimes. In fact, such judges are daily re-writing the laws of every state in the union, not only with respect to the death penalty, but with environmental laws & regulations, other criminal laws, property laws, tort law, and so on.

As a pragmatic conservative, my belief is that the DP should immediately be abolished by Constitutional Amendment. It is simply not worth the trouble to tax the entire criminal justice system with the burden of trying to execute people for DECADES, only to have most convictions overturned on "technicalities," and most DP convicts dying of old age. Think of some of the benefits this abolition would have:

Deprive the ACLU of a major source of contributions,

Get bleeding hearts to STFU already,

Save the cost of endless appeals of DP cases through the state and federal courts,

Allow DP convicts to remain in prison populations, able to kill again (hopefully other bad guys) with impunity.

The list goes on and on. Lock 'em up, and throw away the key; that's what I say.

It is a simple matter of cost-benefit analysis. It is NOT WORTH THE EFFORT to try to execute these low-lifes, knowing that only a small percentage of them will actually fry.

 

[rightwinger]

Most of the world has abandoned the Death Penalty....so should the US

 

[chikenwing]

Support the death penalty.

Think it should be expanded in fact to include drunk driving fatalities, and vehicular homocide incidents in general, especially in the cases of those fleeing from police. As well as any case where you unlawfully take another's life, accidentaly or not - they're still dead and fucked. Apologies and motives don't change that reality so for justice to exist, the offender must die.

Without fear of punishment, justice doesn't exist.

WOW don't let this one get any power!!!

 

[chikenwing]

No DP! its ineffective,randomly applied and barbaric revenge motivated,it has no place in a civilized society.

 

[martybegan]

No.

I agree with Boedicca, except I don't believe any government anywhere has ever been qualified to take a life. Too easy for the system to manipulate false accusation. Way too easy. Nor does the State have that right anyway. When the State can also create a life, I'll reconsider.

Isn't giving the state the power to lock someone away for up to 70-80 years really no different from killing a person after 10-20 or so?

The fact is the only reason some of these people have their cases looked at in detail IS the death penalty. How is locking someone away UNTIL they die for a crime they did not commit somehow any better than killing the person FOR the crime they didn't commit?

 

[DGS49]

Although ill-informed people speculate that "we" may be executing "innocent" people, this is disproven by the absolute lack of any case in the past 80 years when a factually innocent person was executed. Not one. Despite decades of bleeding hearts trying to find one.

The more troublesome thing to me is the number of guilty people whose lives are spared, because they were able to get good lawyers who conned ignorant juries into finding "reasonable doubt" in mountains of confusing nonsense. The name Orenthal James Simpson comes to mind.

I am uncomfortable executing anyone when so many guilty fukkers are able to get off because they had skilled defense lawyers.

But that's just me.

 

[George Costanza]

There are a number of reasons to abolish the death penalty. It is not applied evenly. It takes too long for the appeal process. Innocent people can be (and have been) executed.

I am against the death penalty because it is morally wrong. Even if they ironed out all of the wrinkles - applied it evenly and fairly, streamlined the appeal process, got rid of all the cruel and unusual punishment arguments, etc., I would still be opposed to it, simply because it is morally wrong.

 

[martybegan]

There are a number of reasons to abolish the death penalty. It is not applied evenly. It takes too long for the appeal process. Innocent people can be (and have been) executed.

I am against the death penalty because it is morally wrong. Even if they ironed out all of the wrinkles - applied it evenly and fairly, streamlined the appeal process, got rid of all the cruel and unusual punishment arguments, etc., I would still be opposed to it, simply because it is morally wrong.

For some crimes "3 hots and a cot" for the rest of a person's life simply isn't punishment enough.

 

[Disir]

Although ill-informed people speculate that "we" may be executing "innocent" people, this is disproven by the absolute lack of any case in the past 80 years when a factually innocent person was executed. Not one. Despite decades of bleeding hearts trying to find one.

The more troublesome thing to me is the number of guilty people whose lives are spared, because they were able to get good lawyers who conned ignorant juries into finding "reasonable doubt" in mountains of confusing nonsense. The name Orenthal James Simpson comes to mind.

I am uncomfortable executing anyone when so many guilty fukkers are able to get off because they had skilled defense lawyers.

But that's just me.

Yes, America, We Have Executed an Innocent Man - Andrew Cohen - The Atlantic

Check out Cameron Todd Willingham, too.
The Innocence Project - Cameron Todd Willingham: Wrongfully Convicted and Executed in Texas