All In Favor of the Death Penalty...

[The Voice of Reason]

All in favor of the Death Penalty say "Aye".
For me, I must say that from time to time, the family of Man produces a mind that is broken (Dahmer, Bundy, Berkowitz, Gacy, etc.). When people like this are identified (unfortunately, usually after the fact), I think society has a right, nay, an obligation, to remove them from existence. I realize that we convict innocent people from time to time, but I am talking specifically of cases where there is no possible doubt that you are dealing with abnormal minds that are not going to be "healed" by time.
Heck, who am I kidding? I'm for the death penalty for anyone that intentionally kills another human being.

TVOR

 

[civilcynic]

I believe that society has a obligation to remove the 'murderer' from society but not necessarily from existence.

I'd add more to this but the reasons I oppose the death penalty I stated this very day on the euthansia/death penalty thread and don't want to be redundant

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Civil - Please copy and paste them, if nothing else. I really would like to see where others stand on this. Especially the members that I respect (and that would include you).

TVOR

 

[Druidus]

I don't believe in killing another creature, and I oppose the death penalty. Should we execute soldiers? If not, then what makes them right to kill, and gangs, having their own wars, inherently wrong? Why is it ok for one man to kill another, and yet, another man get killed for doing so?

 

[Feathers in Hair]

Heck, who am I kidding? I'm for the death penalty for anyone that intentionally kills another human being.
TVOR

While I can certainly respect this (especially since anyone who would purposefully hurt another, on any level, is abhorrent to me), as civilcynic said, I think society has an obligation to remove the murderer from society, but not from the world. Since killing (except out of immeadiate self-defense with no alternative) is never justified, the death penalty is simply legalized killing. Granted, it's usually a lot more 'humane' than however the original person was killed, but the wicked upshot of this, (and I hope this doesn't mean that I'm a cruel soul) is that the killer gets a lot longer to think about what they've done. I don't care if their mind is so far around the reality curve that they can see the back of their head. Somewhere, no matter how deep down, in that soul, there is a concience, and it knows what atrocity it's committed.

Death is fleeting and sometimes merciful. Years or decades of contemplating the blackness of your own soul isn't.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

As much as I value human life, and as horrified I as I am at the prospect of putting an innocent person to death, I have to admit that you are right TVOR--there are some people who are just born without the capacity to do anything but detriment society. If I ever become a danerous, homocidal maniac with absolutely no grasp of reality, I hope that society would put me to death. As Fra Morelia once said "you have to put rabid dogs down".

 

[linwood]

Aye!!

But..ahhh..hell they`ve really screwed it up haven`t they?

I mean in the past 10 years they`ve released over 100 people from death row because DNA evidence has totally cleared them.

This shows me that before we have DNA ID we were killing innocent people!

The death penalty has become a political tool for DA`s to rise to the top and help them gain power.
They`re using peoples lives for personal gain and it doesn`t get any more disgusting than that

At the very least there should be a moratorium on the death penalty until all those on death row right now can have the time to examine any possible evidence that may clear them.
This moratorium shouldn`t end until there are strict guidelines to insure this isn`t used as a politacl tool and only the most dangerous and reprehensable killers are given this option.

However to contradict what I`ve just said I`ve kinda thought that perhaps letting them live in miserable conditions for as long as possible would be better service to justice.

My beliefs lead me to think there is nothing after death so what are we really giving them for punishment?

Just the stress of the fear of death until we execute them then they are technically at peace.

I say truly guilty killers need a bit more than that.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Should we execute soldiers?

An excellent point Druidus - and one I have never even thought about. I guess that I would have to say that soldiers get a free pass because they are doing the bidding of the state. Taking that to its logical conclusion (at least, logical to me), I would say that the individual that orders soldiers to kill for any reason other than to defend one's country should be tried as the murderer. If a leader orders his soldiers to defend their country when it is attacked or invaded, I would look at this as I would self defense for an individual.

As far as removing killers from society but not putting them to death, I must admit (as I did in another thread) that I do not place a high value on human life simply because it is human. We would not hesitate to put a rabid dog to sleep - why hesitate with a human that is clearly outside the bounds of societal laws? Maybe I am missing a "compassion" gene or something, but I truly don't get it. I cried when Tommy Jones had to shoot Ol' Yeller in the movies (he had rabies - it was the merciful thing to do), but when I see some guy that just killed a convenience store clerk for the $76.00 in the cash drawer, I say grease him. It is obvious that he didn't value human life (whether he was angry, high, etc.) and I really don't care if we can rehabilitate him.

In my mind, if you want true justice, I would say that the family of the victim should have the first option of putting the convicted killer to death (in a manner similar to the homicide). If the victims survivors choose not to exact revenge, then let the state do it.
I know that this stance is not necessarily popular, but I am being honest in how I see this subject.

Linwood -
I don't see the death penalty as punishment for the crime - I see it as an act of vengeance and the permanent removal of a true, proven threat to the decent people that are the backbone of society.

TVOR