More valid than considering the feelings of the killers family exclusively. Personally, I feel that the death penalty is far more humane then they deserve. I would make them turn a crank and make electricity for the rest of their lives.
So if the victims family doesn’t want them executed, then they shouldn’t be? I’m fine with hard labor for inmates. Shouldnt be just napping and exercise.
By the way, abolishing the death penalty is just a start as it was in Europe. Pretty soon life without parole will be the next target and will be reserved for only the worst offenses, a position currently occupied by the death penalty. Murderers in any capacity deserve to either be put to death or spend the rest of their worthless lives in a tiny solitary cell only to be let out to do hard, unpaid, and unprivileged manual labor.
My point is that the feelings of the killers family is worth zero. I realize it is expensive and its value as a deterrent is questionable.
Except that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent. This has been well studied by social scientists and criminologists and the overwhelming majority have found that it does nothing to deter criminals.
We can agree to disagree in that if a criminal is executed he will obviously never be pardoned or released early.
Is propensity to murder or commit treason genetic? Maybe we should also kill the children of death row inmates to be extra sure. On the whole, the death penalty isn’t an effective deterrent. People who are capable of committing crimes punishable by death are creatures of impulse. They probably don’t spend much time thinking about the consequences of their actions. Finally, the cost of prosecuting death penalty cases is absurd. It’s cheaper to just keep them locked up for life. That said, we need to fix the parole system. We don’t need psychos on the street.
Agreed - an executed criminal can never commit another crime. As for it being a deterrent for other criminals - nope.
When in doubt I err on the side of the government not killing people. As little trust as you have in the govt, I’m very surprised you don’t agree.
Oh, I do agree. I oppose the death penalty for reasons I mentioned. It is far too humane for killers. I also oppose incarcerating nonviolent criminals.
The right has an obsession with executing evildoers per God's Biblical law. The left has an obsession with brutally murdering innocent pre-born babies [and some leftists advocate murdering innocent babies after birth!]
Well of course it's not about cost, maintaining capitol punishment is more costly, not less. The fact of the matter is we're not gaining anything from it other than the satisfaction of killing scumbags, but unfortunately having people executed comes with high costs and risks. I can name several people who have been executed who are believed to be innocent, but the truth is we do not know for certain if they are innocent or guilty. There is no telling how many innocent people throughout history were executed, guilty or innocent is a matter of a court decision, there is an appeals process for having a court decision overturned, but once that person is executed, that process as well as the person themselves is dead. We've even had incidents where one person is executed, and then after the fact someone else confesses to the murder, but again we cannot know for sure because there is also the possibility that one might confess to a crime that they did not commit, which believe it or not does happen on a fairly regular basis
I concur. But, what about powerful people who have been proven to commit heinous crimes of war and oppression, such as Hussein? I might make an exception for such individuals.
If you are ever wrongfully accused of a capital offense in Texas, you will wish you lived elsewhere. The mathematical probability that innocent people will be inevitably executed, over time, is 100%.
I want you to say that to the families of these victims: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Massacre
As a liberal, I am not really against the death penalty in theory. But since it would be impossible to render the death penalty without error, I believe that the state should not be killing people. Until we can 100% guarantee ( which will be never ) that someone is guilty, then we should not execute people.
Oh God, this is hard! Of course, they should have their heads cut off!! But it would only feed a negative emotion - revenge! My suggestion would be to put them to hard labor, like Mandela was working in a stone quarry. 10 hrs. a day and no pay, only adequate food and clothing. In 10 years America's infrastructure would look as good as Germany's under Hitler, thus benefit the whole country. Of course, there should be quality psychotherapy and life counseling as well from time to time. As they age, they understand more and can be given more responsibilities under supervision. But as long as we worship porn and violence on TV and our leaders are mostly corrupt liers and warmongers, there is really no use to try improve the penal system. I say, we are all Gods in the making, and deserve a second chance.