In a system of perfect justice a death penalty may make sense. However, we do not have a system of perfect justice. Our legal system enforces written laws and is not pure justice. I think giving the government the power to write laws that go something like: if we believe you commited action x we kill you is more power than I'd like the government to have. Sound judgment let alone "perfect justice" is in short supply in the halls of government.
Should there be a death penalty?
- Thread starter guitarlifter
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Golding
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Anyone that actually voted yes should read more stories like this.
I recently had three of my flights taken hostage unless I went through a porn scanner, and got groped because I refused. I felt like that was a major injustice that this government did to me. I couldn't imagine how I'd feel if they took my life hostage over a made-up crime. Worse yet, I couldn't imagine what it's like knowing the state will murder you for that crime they made up against you. This guy was only one step away from that.
If a case like that happens in Texas, there's no question that they have had their share of murdering innocents as well. I personally don't believe that in a utopian world, where the courts get things right every time, that the death penalty is justified. But in a world like we live in, where the government commits injustice at every level, it's appalling to see anyone suggest they have the "Okay" to kill.
I recently had three of my flights taken hostage unless I went through a porn scanner, and got groped because I refused. I felt like that was a major injustice that this government did to me. I couldn't imagine how I'd feel if they took my life hostage over a made-up crime. Worse yet, I couldn't imagine what it's like knowing the state will murder you for that crime they made up against you. This guy was only one step away from that.
If a case like that happens in Texas, there's no question that they have had their share of murdering innocents as well. I personally don't believe that in a utopian world, where the courts get things right every time, that the death penalty is justified. But in a world like we live in, where the government commits injustice at every level, it's appalling to see anyone suggest they have the "Okay" to kill.
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Daamien
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No. I don't want the state to have the power to kill its citizens. Also, I believe it to be a violation of due process given how early termination prevents the possibility of additional appeals, clemency, commutation, and of course overturning a sentence based on evidence acquired after sentencing (such as DNA or confession from another individual).
Kludge
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This is an odd question for me. I think victims (or their family/lovers if murder) should be allowed to choose the punishment for others, so long as punishment isn't greater than the punishment to others from the crime. At the logical end, I don't think government should be involved at all, which would indeed mean the unloved die and the murder would go unpunished.
I voted "no" but I was assuming I was answering for the US gov't-bureaucracy, which fairly frequently falsely convicts and in a few cases this century, has even wrongly executed. Most importantly, it commits that murder in everyone's name, which is unacceptable. I can't think of any scenario where I'd kill another person, but so long as it's reasonable, I wouldn't stop someone from punishing another. So I guess in general I support the death penalty in a with-us-or-against-us way.
I voted "no" but I was assuming I was answering for the US gov't-bureaucracy, which fairly frequently falsely convicts and in a few cases this century, has even wrongly executed. Most importantly, it commits that murder in everyone's name, which is unacceptable. I can't think of any scenario where I'd kill another person, but so long as it's reasonable, I wouldn't stop someone from punishing another. So I guess in general I support the death penalty in a with-us-or-against-us way.
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Zippyjuan
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The death penalty is not a deterrant to crime- somebody who may be going to commit one which may fall under the death penalty is not taking that into consideration in my opinion. The Death Penalty is merely vengence. It does nothing to restore the person harmed by the crime. It is a perminant decision. With all the cases in recent years of people being aquitted after many years (one man this week has spent the last 30 years in jail), you remove the ablity to correct wrong convictions as well. I could list links to dozens if not hundreds of such cases. The death penalty acomplishes nothing in my opinion. No death penalty.
txaslftist
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We have most definitely executed innocent people before. There was that project innocence study back in Illinois in 97 or so that established something like a 40% wrongful conviction rate in capital cases. Statistically we have more people in prison in the US than any other nation in the history of the world. If we can afford to house so many, we can afford to house those on death row indefinitely, too. Give them life without parole and every chance to prove their innocence.
I agree.
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