What do you think of the death penalty?

[CD]

Personally,  for the vast majority of situations - actually, all situations, I am against the death penalty.  With the possibility of false convictions or being used to kill off opposition (or gay people in some places), it's horrendous.  With the fact that dead people can't help us figure out how to prevent pedophilia, it's pointless. 

But then again there are some major suck in the world and sometimes it would seem nice to just see the back of it. On the plus side we'd have less people, and the world is overpopulated. Or would we?  Populations tend to rise dramatically after wars, like people are having 10 kids to counteract all the death.  So mebbe the families of death penalty recipients have more kids than average?  I don't know but it's an interesting thought.

What about you?  What do you think?

[Latch33570]

Some people need killing. People like serial killers and terrorist.

[Scott Spears]

But if we categorize a certain group of people as needing to be killed, where does the line get drawn? Is it only ok to kill people who have killed other people? And if that's the case then aren't we doing the same thing that the killer is doing by cutting off someone's life? As Nicky Johnson points out in the post two below this one, killing people doesn't allow for them to change. That isn't to say that they should be allowed to wander free. They do need to be put into a facility that will rehabilitate them, not like prison, but a system that actually works to change the people it incarcerates. 

[Khadija]

Put someone like that in the jail for the rest of their life. That will punish them so much more than just the death. 

[Molly]

I completely agree! 

Most of my friends are for the death penalty, and every time (which isn't every often), that we attempt to talk about it, I always bring up that point. 

AND life in prison is cheaper than executing the felon.

Plus whenever the U.S. tries to advocate for human rights in the UN, countries like China without fail bring up the fact that we kill our own citizens. 

So not only is the death penalty morally wrong, as well as expensive, it prevents us from advocating for human rights across the globe. 

[Abreo]

It's also morally wrong to throw someone in jail for the rest of their life in order to punish them, regardless of what they did. Punishment is always vengeful and evil. I'm not against jail, I'm just for either rehabilitation or keeping them from endangering others.

[Molly]

I agree with you. I guess I didn't make that quite clear in my previous comment... I tend to do that.

I was just trying to make the point that on the world stage, executing citizens in what is supposedly the most humane and least painful way possible, does not help the United States shiny and plastic image. It only makes the U.S. look like huge hypocrites when we argue for human rights.  

 

[Theo Leo]

I believe that Kevorkian's system of assisted suicide should be an option when it comes to severe criminals. 

[Jordyn Preusker]

some people just can't be rehabilitated though. jail in life is the best option

[Abreo]

That would be "I'm not against jail...or keeping them from endangering others"

[Nicky Johnson]

I disagree with the death penalty wholeheartedly. It assumes there's no hope for rehabilitation at all, which is why people who repeatedly scream that pedophiles should be executed are ignorant in their anger, doesn't act as a deterrent, and can lead to accidental executions. The last point should be reason enough to bad the death penalty in civilised countries.

[Austin Michael Dawursk]

I am on the fence about the death penalty. On one side we have people who are horrible, horrible human beings that are dangerous to everyone around them but on the other if we kill them we are not much better than they are. life in prison is a form of death penalty but it can be considered as cruel or not as cruel as ending their life quickly. But the thing is, serial killers tend to form a pattern where they don't rehabilitate. They enjoy killing. It brings them pleasure, and there for they are a danger to every one including other cell mates who do have a chance of rehabilitation. But if we don't have a death penalty then prisons could over flow and that I feel is a way worse situation than ending a life of some one who really, probably doesn't deserve to live.

[CD]

it would seem to me that prisons overflow because of the overpolicing of minor drug use and possession; and other not so good, but not so bad activities.  why do they stick the pedophiles and serial killers in with the general population?   other than letting the general population shank them out of anger?