I used to be four square in favor of the death penalty. I have completely changed my mind. Innocent people are dying. I don't think our government should have such power to kill unless it can assure perfection in our justice system.

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lambaste me not

Would you like to provide specific examples of which innocent people were killed? I know it is possible, because even DNA is not perfect, but as time goes on, I think the chances of making a mistake diminishes.

I wish the convicted got one appeal. After that, they'd have a week until they're executed. It's a joke when you have people sitting on death row for 10 years or more.

I'm a very staunch advocate of the death penalty, and if our system was made more efficient, it might actually start saving us money to execute people.

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Proudly a "South Park Republican"

Here is one such example:

http://www.truthinjustice.org/ken-waters.htm

Now had this man lived in the world you envision, where we would hurry up and kill him, he would have never been set free. Luckily he was sent away for life and was able to be aquitted later.

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lambaste me not

Innocent people in the thousands die every day to car accidents, famine, violent crime, etc. The US has killed an estimated 5,500 civilians since the start of the Iraq war. This is true for (all)most wars. A few innocent lives by capital punishment in order to maintain a strong system of justice and punishment is a fair price.

If you set the bar for the exception to every rule, then right becomes wrong and left becomes right. To condemn any system for a small percentage of problems is to deny reality.

And what about the molester priest who was killed in prison by a "lifer" in Massachusetts. You see, there is no ultimate price and thus this lifer only has to face additional years put onto his sentence. The molester priest was an "innocent." This is but one solid reason capital punishment should exist.

The problem with this kind of logic is when we start thinking of human beings as statistic figures. What's a few innocent lives here and there, right? But start thinking of these people as real individuals, and it puts that question. These innocent people have loved ones. They all have a life story. They pay taxes. They are someone's brother, father, or son. These are real people put to death by their peers. No way. It is not ok to let even one of these people be put to death by the very government that is supposed to protect them. I feel the same way about an innocent person dying in the electric chair as I do a soldier who would never let one of his fellow soldiers die in the field alone without bringing him home. Not one.

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lambaste me not

'Revenge, Sweet-Lasting Revenge!'

Why should a murderer live when he himself gave the victim no such oppurtunity? Does that make the murderer more worthy of life? To the victim's family a life imprisonment sentence is a life-long taunt. "I live and your daughter dies!" What is that? Pure sickness, humanity's tragedy. While the family mourns, society grimaces, it needs the sinful blood, it needs vengeance. Why? Because it feels good.

Why? Because principles only mean anything when you stick to them at times when it is least easy to do so.

When I hear of a rapist murderer, sure I want him do die too. But my principles are true becuase I am willing to forgo my lust for revenge to uphold my compassion for innocent people.

My opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do at all with people who commit murder. It has to do with people dying innocently.

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lambaste me not

[quote="powergrid";p="25355"]Name one man on death row, besides Mumia (Who, still, unfortunately will be imprisoned for life) who is innocent. As somebody stated above, these days it is very, very difficult to be convicted wrongly of a capital crime, as scientific improvement has been integrated into the courts. (Most notably DNA testing)

Grid,

It must be nice to live in a world of absolutes. If we wanted to save innocent lives, we as Americans should simply stop driving cars and stop importing goods from 3rd world countries with few labor laws.

We're talking about a system of crime prevention and punishment such that a greater good (net benefit) is produced. Our country is losing sight of the greater good principle as we always seek the fine print and absolutes to define our systems. The problem is, the real world consists of losses, entropy in every system. If we follow your theory, the Government is guilty of murder because we know going into every war that friendly fire casualties will occur. Now those who want to win a war understand that acceptable losses are a statistic that can be overcome.

See the larger picture.

See above. I provided a link.

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lambaste me not