Death penalty - Your opinion

[Sallow]

Most of the world has abandoned the Death Penalty....so should the US

The frequency that it is used here makes it impossible not to make mistakes.

It really should come to an end.

 

[Pogo]

I'm not so sure that having emotional arguments as part of the mix is such a bad idea.

The whole idea of ethics is that bad things evoke horror and disgust in us. Those are emotions, but they spur us to more noble deeds.

Like I already wrote, I am very conflicted on this.

Principally, I am against the death penalty in most cases, but I see times where the application of said is probably the best punishment for the crime at hand. In other words, there are acceptable exceptions in my eyes.

Had Hitler not blown his brains out and had he been captured, I can imagine that his execution would have been seen as absolutely correct in the eyes of hundreds of millions of human beings. Likewise for Joseph Stalin.

If we agree that part of the criminal justice system is also designed to be a deterrent to further crime, then we must accept that there is also an emotion component in that wave of thinking as well.


After all, we are not machines. We are homo sapiens.

The problem with basing decisions on emotions, particularly decisions that have no point of return, is that emotions can sway in the moment over logic. Hitler is actually a good example, as his power depended on the emotion of mob mentality. Had logic prevailed in popular thinking, such a madman would have been relegated to the fringe where he'd be harmless and kept there. Emotion fueled Nazi Germany just as it fueled the Inquisition, any war we'd like to pick, and rage in general.

Execution is final; there is no bringing the Todd Willinghams back.

We are human, and by definition fallible.

Actually, no, for the bolded, I must disagree with you [MENTION=41527]Pogo[/MENTION] - that whizzed past my eyes the first time.

Perhaps Hitler came to power on a wave of emotion, but he REMAINED in power through terror and brute force, so that is not an apt comparision to the workings of any criminal justice system in the 1st world that I know of.

Just my two Eurocents.

Isn't terror also an emotion? And was not the wave of emotion that put him in place enough to give him the foothold he needed?

 

[Pogo]

I want to point out that part of the huge disparity - and cause of massive disagreement on many levels - is that capital punishment in the USA is an issue subordinate to federalism - since capital punishment is not spelled out in the US Constitution, then each state gets to decide how to deal with it.

But as Pogo has argued, and quite elegantly, I will add, is not every heinious murder supposed to be equally bad? Why should a mass murdered get a cushy life sentence in California, but the death sentence in Texas?

If there were to be capital punishment, should it not be adjudicated universally and according to exactly the same criteria in all of the USA?

And should capital punishment be made illegal, who is going to pay for all of those mass murderers? I don't want to.

Perhaps we should take a japanese idea, use our trash to create a huge island somewhere in the Pacific, dropped all convicted mass murderers and child rapists off on that Island, thousands of miles away from anything, and let them tear each other apart. It would solve some of our trash problem and some of our incarceration problem all at the same time.

Just a thought.

And we could call this island "Australia".

 

[DriftingSand]

Hello guys,
I'm doing a research for school at the moment with the topic "Death penalty in America". The main part of it should be a comparison between german/european and american attitudes.
So here's my question, do you approve or do you deny and why?

I'd highly appreciate if you could post your opinions here.

By the way,
the reason for making a new topic even though it's already on the board is because my teacher mentioned i have to prove that I collected those information by myself.

I'm all for the death penalty.

Reasons:

1) Anyone willing to take someone else's life has forfeited the right to enjoy his own.
2) It removes a violent criminal from society so that he can't kill again.
3) It will likely act as a deterrent for other would-be killers. Not in all cases but certainly in some.
4) We all have to die sometime. In the case of a murderer it may as well be sooner than later.
5) The surviving victims of a loved one who was murdered can experience some semblance of justice and closure.

 

[Pogo]

1) Anyone willing to take someone else's life has forfeited the right to enjoy his own.
Agreed. But incarceration does the same thing, so non sequitur.

2) It removes a violent criminal from society so that he can't kill again.
Again, see #1. Doesn't lead to DP. Non sequitur.

3) It will likely act as a deterrent for other would-be killers. Not in all cases but certainly in some.
Experience seems to prove it does not.

4) We all have to die sometime. In the case of a murderer it may as well be sooner than later.
The question is, who is qualified to decide that? You? Me? Somebody else? I'm certainly not.

5) The surviving victims of a loved one who was murdered can experience some semblance of justice and closure.
The word is "revenge" actually. "Justice and closure" would be bringing the victim back.

.

 

[Statistikhengst]

I want to point out that part of the huge disparity - and cause of massive disagreement on many levels - is that capital punishment in the USA is an issue subordinate to federalism - since capital punishment is not spelled out in the US Constitution, then each state gets to decide how to deal with it.

But as Pogo has argued, and quite elegantly, I will add, is not every heinious murder supposed to be equally bad? Why should a mass murdered get a cushy life sentence in California, but the death sentence in Texas?

If there were to be capital punishment, should it not be adjudicated universally and according to exactly the same criteria in all of the USA?

And should capital punishment be made illegal, who is going to pay for all of those mass murderers? I don't want to.

Perhaps we should take a japanese idea, use our trash to create a huge island somewhere in the Pacific, dropped all convicted mass murderers and child rapists off on that Island, thousands of miles away from anything, and let them tear each other apart. It would solve some of our trash problem and some of our incarceration problem all at the same time.

Just a thought.

And we could call this island "Australia".

Works for me!!!

 

[Political Junky]

The US should abandon the death penalty.

 

[Meathead]

1) Anyone willing to take someone else's life has forfeited the right to enjoy his own.
Agreed. But incarceration does the same thing, so non sequitur.

2) It removes a violent criminal from society so that he can't kill again.
Again, see #1. Doesn't lead to DP. Non sequitur.

3) It will likely act as a deterrent for other would-be killers. Not in all cases but certainly in some.
Experience seems to prove it does not.

4) We all have to die sometime. In the case of a murderer it may as well be sooner than later.
The question is, who is qualified to decide that? You? Me? Somebody else? I'm certainly not.

5) The surviving victims of a loved one who was murdered can experience some semblance of justice and closure.
The word is "revenge" actually. "Justice and closure" would be bringing the victim back.

.

Pogo, stop being an idiot. You wouldn't know a "non-sequitur" from your asshole. Above all, don't presume to dictate what is right, wrong or moral, much less what is just to others. You really haven't got a clue.

 

[Pogo]

1) Anyone willing to take someone else's life has forfeited the right to enjoy his own.
Agreed. But incarceration does the same thing, so non sequitur.

2) It removes a violent criminal from society so that he can't kill again.
Again, see #1. Doesn't lead to DP. Non sequitur.

3) It will likely act as a deterrent for other would-be killers. Not in all cases but certainly in some.
Experience seems to prove it does not.

4) We all have to die sometime. In the case of a murderer it may as well be sooner than later.
The question is, who is qualified to decide that? You? Me? Somebody else? I'm certainly not.

5) The surviving victims of a loved one who was murdered can experience some semblance of justice and closure.
The word is "revenge" actually. "Justice and closure" would be bringing the victim back.

.

Pogo, stop being an idiot. You wouldn't know a "non-sequitur" from your asshole. Above all, don't presume to dictate what is right, wrong or moral, much less what is just to others. You really haven't got a clue.

Another wag who doesn't know what non sequitur means, yet wants to play with the grownups.

Classic.

Aren't you the same intellect who referred to me as "Indoboy" an answered a philosophical question with stats about Europe, which you have yet to explain?

Life among the illiterate. Pitiful.

 

[Meathead]

.

Pogo, stop being an idiot. You wouldn't know a "non-sequitur" from your asshole. Above all, don't presume to dictate what is right, wrong or moral, much less what is just to others. You really haven't got a clue.

Another wag who doesn't know what non sequitur means, yet wants to play with the grownups.

Classic.

Aren't you the same intellect who referred to me as "Indoboy" an answered a philosophical question with stats about Europe, which you have yet to explain?

Life among the illiterate. Pitiful.

Your conclusion itself is a non-sequitur. Pogo, you're a disingenuous ass if you did not understand my reference in the death penalty representing the will of the people. There are few "grown ups" on this site, and you certainly are not among them. I cannot abide people instructing others as to what is moral or just any more than I can fire-and-brimstone preachers. A self-righteous asshole is an asshole regardless of what they espouse.

Pogo, you are a self-righteous asshole.

 

[Pogo]

-- as opposed to being a meathead who doesn't know the difference between a philosophical question on the rights of a State and ... "Europe".

Not to mention the meaning of non sequitur...

Not to mention simple reading of who posted what...

usw...

I cannot abide people blah blah yammer yammer yammer

-- apparently you also cannot abide the technique of reading.

Wacko.

 

[rightwinger]

States who support the Death Penalty

1. China
2. N Korea
3 Pakistan
4. Islamic States
5. Texas

Need I say more?