The Death Penalty

[The Devil Himself]

I'd like to know what everyone's mood on the Death Penalty is.

[Martyr]

You don't care what we think!
You just want to stir up trouble now that theis forum has finally achieved peace in our unified hatred of Lloyd Heart.
You devil!

For the record, though, the death penalty is infinitely wiser than keeping people in prison. Draining our tax dollars. Threatening to get out as old men and causing a suicidal/homicidal bloodbath...

Let's just get rid of the bastards. No kidding. Anybody who's got something crazy, like 80-800 years, man, screw that. Just whack 'em. And screw ceremony. Get a freaking pistol, walk to the cell, and tip the custodial staff.

Hmm...I have a feeling this is going to be a touchy subject for some. It's also fairly complex. There are a lot of issues to consider here. I, for one, am for the death penalty depending on the case. But you can already see the problem in that, because one person's opinion may be completely opposite of another's, and its hard to say who should get to decide. So with that, I've basically said I'll support the death penalty as long as its not my responsibility to sentence, which doesn't seem right in some way, but again, who I am to decide who deserves to live or die?

I am generally cynical in nature, so I tend to think rehabilitation is not often successful. I also believe that everyone should understand the consqequences of their actions, which in the case of murder, the death penalty to me is a fitting consequence.

Wow, I didn't think this topic would be this hard for me to articulate.

Hmm...I was also thinking about issues with crowded prisons and repeat offenders. The whole "once a murderer always a murderer" thing, but its not always true, so that just goes around in a vicious cycle back to my first paragraph. There's also the issue with juvenile executions, executing innocent people, a lot of things that go into this.

Before I ramble any more, I'm going to conclude by saying that I am for the death penalty depending on the case. If I think of anything else, I'll post again.

[Wetflame]

Actually the Death Penalty is more expensive than you think, there are enourmous costs involved.

Also, many innocent people have been on death row.
There are lists if you want to search for them.
I remember our religion teacher showed us all this stuff.

I saw a very good program once, an 18 year old sentenced to Death row, "They treat us like kids up until we do something wrong, then they punish us like adults"
Very often people are given the death penalty for a single murder or a few murders, obviously that is very wrong but adding another body to the pile is hardly going to help.

It's a disgusting inhumane practice. The Death Penalty is a paradox in itself anyway. Kill people who kill.

[The Devil Himself]

My view is that if you kill a person who's killed, you're no better than them. And the Death Penalty is more expensive than putting someone in jail for life. And jails are mostly overcrowded because of a bunch of ridiculous laws (namely drug laws) that have been passed.

[FunnyLooking]

Geez, all these people posted right before me...

<As far as innocents, well, that happens.>

Whoa! Explain to me the advantage of Death Penalty over Life in prison though? Seriously, when you really look at it, Death Penalty is either impractical unless you take it to an inhumane extreme.

<For the record, though, the death penalty is infinitely wiser than keeping people in prison. Draining our tax dollars.>

Doesn't death penalty cost about 10 times as much as keeping someone in prison per person? It seems illogical, but it's true. Logic steps aside to reality. Heh.

<It's a disgusting inhumane practice. The Death Penalty is a paradox in itself anyway. Kill people who kill.>

Another way to look at it is extremely fair justice. I mean, do to you what you do to someone else. Eye for an eye, if you will. So it makes sense, it's just not practical, if you ask me.

<Also, many innocent people have been on death row.>

That's the most dangerous thing about the death penalty. They found out these people were innocent, but they already killed them. What's done is done.

Another problem with the death penalty is, in fact, racial prejudgice. Although I dont have the sources, a black person was insanely more likely to receive the death penalty for the same crime if committed by a white person.

The death penalty is impractical, dangerous, and costly. It's completely worthless and outdated.

[Martyr]

Originally Posted by FunnyLooking

Another problem with the death penalty is, in fact, racial prejudgice. Although I dont have the sources, a black person was insanely more likely to receive the death penalty for the same crime if committed by a white person.

Thats because the jails are overrun with black people. With the NAACP breathing down the courts back, the black people recycle faster than white people, and whites often get high jail times. The longer they stay in, the longer there's white people in jail helping to equalize the race count. Likewise with black people getting out or getting death.

That's what I heard anyway. I'm pretty sure my source was reliable. So I'm white and I'm pretty lawful.

[Krylo]

Well, as you'll all come to know, I tend to have two very different views on just about every subject, which is a side effect of my having both a very sadistic and cold-hearted side and a very compassionate side. So, I'll just go ahead and argue both views.

My Sadistic Cold-Hearted And Often Self-Righteous Side Says: They killed someone, they deserve to die. And they deserve to die in exactly the same way they killed that person. Lethal injection? Bah! If they drug someone behind a car for 10 miles, drag them behind a car for twenty! If they skinned someone alive, skin THEM alive. Let the punishment fit the crime... and there's no punishment that fits better than repeating the crime on the offender. Besides... who wants to kill someone in a sick way if they're going to die that way too?

On the other hand, My Compassionate (and sometimes wimpy) Side has this to say: That's all fine and good, but there's a lot of problems with killing people for murder. In the first place it's our legal system's job to REFORM. The whole legal system is built around the idea that people can change, if a murderer can't change, then our whole legal system is flawed at it's most integral core. If people can't change then we should execute every criminal, shouldn't we? But obviously, not everyone gets out of prison after stealing and does it again... or killing... if we can reform them, that's what we should do. Instead of killing them, we should change the prison system to put more emphasis on reformation, and less on punishment. Now, I know some of you are going to say that the death penalty is a deterrent, but then why are their still murders in Texas and other states that support it? Obviously it doesn't work, or we wouldn't ever have to use it. That entire idea is flawed, all it is, is vengence, and shouldn't the law be above such petty pursuits as revenge? And all that aside... how about the innocents? Go and look at lists of people that were put on death row and then released when the real killer was caught... or even killed and THEN the real killer was caught. If we execute even one innocent person, then we're just as much murderers as the people that we're executing for the crime, aren't we? If an innocent person is killed by us, how are we exempt? Think about that.


Yah, I think that about covers both sides. I tend to side with my compassionate side on this, because the only infalliable arguement for the death penalty is the revenge angle... and the idea that the law should be above revenge is a good one. And not even my sadistic side is willing to argue money issues when there are people's lives at stake. That's just sick. (He would argue enjoyment... but just ignore him.)

[Dona Maria]

Actually krylo, I'm probably more cold-hearted than you on this one. You see, I think the death penalty is too easy for some people. One guy mass murders 20 people and you want to give him a painless little prick in the arm to kill him? How is that a punishment? He probably ACCEPTED death and therefor we were doing him a service.

What's my idea?

Well sir, I'm glad you asked (even if you didn't). You see, the main problem with the death penalty is that it's supposed to be a PENALTY but a corpse doesn't know its dead. Religious issues aside, once you kill someone, they decompose and they become crude organic matter, so how are you teaching them a leason? So! With that in mind I propose my "Simulated Death" program. If someone is convicted of a crime worthy of death, instead of having them sit on death row for several years eating up millions of tax-payer's dollars and waiting an appeal, they will immediatly be entered into my program. The first thing that happens is that their 7th vertebrea is severed so they loose all feeling and function of their body. Then, their eardrums are ruptured so they can't here anything. Next, a feeding tube is placed into their stomach and a catheter into...everything else. Then, their tounge and teeth are removed in the off chance that those might provide some type of stimulation. Now, they are suspended and locked in a dark room where they will never see another being or the light of day again.

Viola! Simulated Death. And I'm sure that it will be more of a deterrant if video cameras are in the rooms and the tapes are sent to highschools as a type of "shock" treatment. When people learn what happens to them if they break the law, I can be almost positive that no one would want to end up like that, therefor less death penalty-assured crimes.

Peace out.

[FunnyLooking]

Great idea DonaMaria, except for the fact that would probably make them MORE psychotic... and that sounds like what the government did in the game Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller. Oh btw, great game.

<One guy mass murders 20 people and you want to give him a painless little prick in the arm to kill him?>

Does it really matter how you kill somebody? I mean, the only real difference is how disgusting we're willing to be, and I don't think a lot of people want to be that disgusting. Once they're dead, they're dead. It doesn't matter how much pain they were in, or how gruesome their death was, because they're dead.

Sure, hitching up a rapist's balls to a car battery seems like poetic justice, but... well... actually, sounds like a good idea to me. Death Penalty is a different issue though, because it costs too much and it's permanent.

<The fact that crime continues is probably more the fault of bad policing than the ineffectivity of death penalty as a deterrent.>

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure murder-crime is higher in places with the death penalty. Bah, don't take my word for it, somebody find some sources...

And Martyr, you say that jail for life is worse than death? I disagree entirely, but you think that's the case, then wouldn't jail for life work better as a deterrant?