Death Penalty

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

I'm on a role this week when it comes to creating threads xD

I was reading an article about the lethal injection method and the possibility of it being revised and wondered what you all thought. Do you support it completely, wish to ban it, or want more restrictions on it? If you support it, what methods do you approve of? What sort of restrictions should be added?

Personally, I feel the death penalty is an easy way out for the prisoner who will never have to face the consequences of his actions. There have been plenty of people, who were put to death, that later on were proven to be innocent by DNA evidence. However, some people absolutely need to be put to death to protect the public. These people would have to be serious threats such as serial murderers or rapists though.

The only problem is the fact that we don't have a reasonably humane way to put these people to death. Lethal injections do not work for everyone and has been proven to paralyze a person occassionally, but they still have to suffer the agony of dying. The other authorized choices aren't that great either. Firing squads, hanging, gas chambers, and electrocution have been proven to be even worse than lethal injections.

Looking at it in a non-emotional way, it costs more money to put someone to death than it does to incarcerate them for life. Also, it has been proven to be related to crime rates. In months where there are more executions, there tends to be higher crime rates. Finally, there is no set guideline from state to state. A person in New York who commits a crime is not eligible while in another state they are. It just appears to me that the federal government should at least create guidelines for the death penalty and required circumstances if the prosecutor wants to pursue it. Overall, the bad points seem to overly outweigh the goods of the death penalty.

For more information and statistics: Death Penalty Information Center
Method Descriptions: Descriptions of Execution Methods
Crimes Punishable by the Death Penalty(by state): Crimes Punishable by the Death Penalty (please note some may have changed)

[Silent_Wolf]

This is one topic I am keeping my trap shut on; I seriously think some guys should be put to death, end of story. Like that guy from my state, Scott Laci or something; he murdered his pregnant wife in cold blood, and I'm not even sure if he got off of the charges. All I know is that he was a scumbag and shouldn't be allowed to be alive.

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

But would putting him to death bring her or their unborn child back? There are horrible crimes commited everywhere, but does that mean they should be allowed to get the death penalty and escape from their conscience? I think a life incarceration would teach a point much better than letting them off.

Maybe it takes seeing a jail or prison to really understand the environment, but it isn't a walk in the park. They aren't pampered or anything. While the buildngs themselves may not be bad, you still have to worry about the inmates. Some of them would kill you just to get a pair of socks, which I feel is a fully justifiable environment for men(and women) like Scott Peterson(I think that's his last name as his wife was Laci).


On a side note, I'm going to ask that no one posts any arguments like "God says its bad, so I don't like it." That really doesn't add anything to the topic.

[Silent_Wolf]

No, it wouldn't, but who's to say he isn't feeling guilt about it at all? He tried to skip town after her death.

[Miranda_]

And personally, I'd prefer it if my taxes weren't being used to keep scumbags, serial killers and pedophiles alive. -.- As for so called innocent victims, the ones that people round here cite are Evans and Hanratty. Hanratty was proven to be guilty years after the fact by DNA testing; Evans was considered to be guilty of his wife's murder by the Brabin inquiry. Cuz he was convicted of his daughter's murder only, he got a pardon. As for the whole "Let him have it" controvosy, intent counts in a case of a killer couple. You don't have to be the one who did the killing, but if you were there and therefore allowed it to happen, a judge can claim you had intent and are therefore also guilty. The people who were truly innocent of murder are very few compared to the guilty who got away scot free.

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

I think we all have issues with keeping them alive, but I also have issues paying for their numerous appeals when they get the death penalty. Its strange that it ends up costing more to put them to death than to keep them alive, but oddly enough true.

If they are going to put them to death, at least someone should take the time out to find a humane way. More and more bot.ched executions with lethal injections have been reported in recent times, making me think that its not quite so humane as everyone makes it out to be. When they are bot.ched, I hate to think of the money a family then tries to get out of the government. I see lawsuits galore in a system that allows people to sue over hot coffee.

[Silent_Wolf]

There was also a case where someone sued another person over an iced coffee, that was super dumb.

On topic, the whole thing is stupid. People who are never going to accept what they did was wrong SHOULD be put to death.

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

I'm all for it in cases like that, but there needs to be some type of psychological testing and probably a time period where they see if the person has at all started to feel regret or guilt.

A good example is Jeffrey Dahmer(Jeffrey Dahmer - Serial Killer and Cannibal - The Crime library). What he did was inexcusable and he should've been sentenced to death(not 15 consecutive life term, which is ridiculous in my opinion anyways -_-; ). I think he was a calculating... inappropriate word... that was only playing the court by claiming remorse. I'm certain a psychologist would've proven that his letter of apology was just an attempt to wiggle out of his crimes. I suppose I'm thankful he was killed by another prisoner.

[Miranda_]

A black prisoner... proving that karmic justice exists everywhere.

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

I'm not sure if the site mentions it, but one of the boys he killed was actually the brother of an early escaped victim. When the murder brother escaped himself, the police let him go back into the custody of Dahmer, who claimed he was his boyfriend and simply drunk. It makes me wish it was an asian who did him in instead of a black prisoner.