Death penalty?

Its a mistake to think of this as a liberal issue. Many conservatives as well as liberals oppose the death penalty because it is not an effective method of crime control. They are looking at the facts. Here are some of the facts,verifiable and sourced. You can look them over, and let common sense do the rest-

Re: cost

The death penalty costs far more than life in prison. The huge extra costs start to mount up even before the trial.

Re: Alternatives

48 states have life without parole on the books. It means what it says, is swift and sure and is rarely appealed. Being locked in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day, forever, is certainly no picnic.

Re: Possibility of executing an innocent person

Over 120 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence. Many of these people spent over a decade before being found innocent. If we speed up the process we are bound to execute an innocent person. By the way, appeals are not designed to look at whether the convicted person was actually innocent. They are intended only to make sure the trial was in accord with constitutional standards.

Re: DNA

DNA is available in no more than 10% of murder cases. It is not a miracle cure for sentencing innocent people to death. It’s human nature to make mistakes.

Re: Deterrence

The death penalty isn’t a deterrent. Murder rates are actually higher in states with the death penalty than in states without it. Moreover, people who kill or commit other serious crimes do not think they will be caught (if they think at all.)

Re: Who gets the death penalty

The death penalty isn’t reserved for the “worst of the worst,” but rather for defendants with the worst lawyers. When is the last time a wealthy person was sentenced to death, let alone executed??

Re: Victims families

The death penalty is very hard on victims’ families. They must relive their ordeal in the courts and the media. Life without parole is sure, swift and rarely appealed. Some victims families who support the death penalty in principal prefer life without parole because of how the death penalty affects families like theirs.

Opposing the death penalty doesn’t mean you condone brutal crimes or excuse people who commit them. We should make up our minds using common sense based on solid facts. According to a Gallup Poll, in 2006, 47% of all Americans prefer capital punishment while 48% prefer life without parole. Americans are learning the facts.

This is a complicated question,first of all the prisons make allot of money from incarcerating these people and keeping them there.If they were put to death the prisons would loose their funding and allot of prison guards would be out of a job.Also how many criminals do you think are either Republican or Conservative?I personally don't think very many are,so the Liberals are only protecting their future interests if they should happen to become incarcerated themselves.Also you have the bleeding hearts who only see the criminal as being the victim because maybe their mother yelled at them when they were a child or maybe they grew up without a father so therefore it's not their fault they molested an innocent child or killed an innocent person some may even say the victim was at fault for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.So the perpetrator had every right to do what they did.Sick isn't it?But that's why so many convicts who deserve to die are left alive for year after year after year at our expense.

I, too, disagree with the liberal opposition to the death penalty, but on different grounds. Don't you think it sounds crass and cynical to advocate the death penalty as a means of saving tax dollars?

I believe there are two strong arguments for the death penalty, and I believe the arguments against are weak. For: 1. Deterrence. I do not believe the popular wisdom that the death penalty is not a deterrent--IF it is actually imposed. 2. Let the punishment fit the crime. This enables society to make a strong statement of value. That's right, value--killing a convicted murderer is not at all LIKE his crime (as detractors employing moral equivalence will charge), it counterbalances his crime.

Against: 1. Taking another life is not justified, when the killer is just as completely removed from society by incarceration. (I gave two reasons above why it is justified.) 2. If the state kills, the state has sunk to the level of the murderer. (Not so--an execution of a convicted killer is not the equivalent of a murder.)

Note: Re: Born of a Broken Man and the fear of executing an innocent man: the actual instances of this are very rare--they could be counted on one hand, I believe. The argument is a straw man.

Only one reason: We make mistakes.

Since there's no possible way to ensure that we won't, or haven't already, killed a person who is innocent of the crime, you need to come up with a number that you'd be comfortable with....let's say we only murdered 2 innocent people every 10 years - that would be a pretty successful program, and I doubt even Nasa operates with percentages that high. So, would that be ok? Is it ok with you if we just kill 2 innocent people every 10 years so that all the other thousands who are guilty could be executed?

Most people would say "no", it's not ok.

But that is exactly the system you are proposing.

Unless you've suddenly found the one area in all of human endeavor where we never, ever make any mistakes.

Have you found that?

i agree, the death penalty should be inforced with a vengence, this nations crime rate is out of control because of all the liberals, a slap on the hand of those who are repeat offenders is insane and not practical, severe crimes like murer,rape and child abuse,treason etc. should be met with immeadiate death penalty no appeals once the offender has been tried and convicted. Crime rate would drop drastically within 12 months if these laws were enforced and or implemented. I suggest that the liberals take these criminals into their homes for a while and see how long it would be before they or their loved ones or their property were victimized and or worse, my family works in law enforcement. Inside the penal system the criminals still commit crimes rape, beatings,drugs and prostitution even the occassional murder happen every single day inside these prisons...why do they happen? because the officers within the institution are no longer allowed to enforce law and order with in the facilities all because of the liberals who tie the hands of the officers who try to keep the prisoners in line. not using abuse,but by follwing the laws they were trained to enforce.. if officers enforce the state/or facility mandated laws allowing them to correct

the offending prisoner, the officers jobs

are immeadiately jepordized as they are put under microscopic scrutiny to determine if "the rights" of the imprisoned convicted prisoner have been in any way shape or form constrained or impeaded. The officers who do the job correctly are often threatened with dismissal if they actually try to enforce the facility mandates. So basically these criminals learn new ways to lie,cheat,steal and worse..what attorneys to use when they get busted again and the best places to get the best resourses to commit the crimes they want to do. All the while..the officers are not allowed to do the jobs they are hired to do because the criminals run the facilities by sitting on so-called "advisory boards" , on these "boards" actual criminals decide what is "to harsh", "to brutal" or unfair for the convicted crimminals within the facilities.They actually demand that the officers who attempt to enforce the laws of the facility can often find themselves facing a disaplinary board just for doing the job they were hired and trained to do

Do you ever hear about the corrections officers who are beaten,and raped and assulted..no you dont. It is a conspiracy to withhold this information.from the public..i have first hand knowledge of these crimes perpetrated against actual honest human beings...people with familes and kids,who shop at grocery stores and go to church, who have bills to pay and food and a mortgage to pay...not criminals...but they are violated and not supported or compensated by the facilities where they work...one officer in Ohio the month of October was attacked,thrown to the ground and had their skull crushed by the criminals within the facility, another one its called "stompin" was stomped head and jaw crushed, internal organs ruptured, this individual will never be able to have children now...they were never paid for their time off the job, their medical bills never paid and this is only two cases that i have related to you that occured within the last few months. We have to remove the liberals from the seats of power in this democracy. and the only way to get the liberals off their Dr.Spock attitudes is to force them into situations where they have to live with the element that they coddle and cradle...the rapist,pediphile,murderers etc. they want normal everyday people to

live with this filth yet they seclude themselves behind gates and wealth and have no idea what it is like in the real world.

These criminals do not change. Society destroys a dog,wolf,eagle,or hawk even cougar or any other animal who attacks and or kills a human life or even livestock or pets..wild animals react instinctivley a kill is not personal to them...yet when a human kills,rapes,tortures murders etc. they are contained,given food,clothing rest and a warm bed and dental medical attention with all the name brand medications..not generic bet you didnt know that either...can you your friends and family afford all name brand medications? me and mine cannot..yet the crimes the the criminal intentionally commit.. not instinctivley commmit but intentionally commmit they are permitted to live long and well and are even paid..yet are those criminals any lest animal than the dog,wolf eagle the hawk the bear and or cougar...those animals are killed without trial...why should the so-called human convicted thinking reasoning plotting coniving human animal get anything different than the immeadiate death..? that death sentence is given to any animal that only commits the crime of responding to its natural instincts and then commits the natural act that we humans declare must be punished by death?

tell me...what is the difference? are those horrible crimes any less animalistic? any less vicious? Actually the human crimes is generally even more brutal and mutelating

why should those human animals be treated any differently...do you see any reason? i see none

The death penalty should be introduced for more offences or at least repeat offenders. If someone is scum then societly should be able to despatch them and not have to pay their upkeep.

Only the poor people get the death penalty. Also many who get the penalty are later discovered to be innocent.

I am a conservative and do not agree with the death penalty. Maybe its because I am christian and feel its not anyone place to say when someone lives and someone dies.

Many families could have "Habitat" homes built with that money.

Many (innocent) hungry(many in poverty with dead end, minimum wage, jobs) could have the food instead.

Many poor could go to college with the money.

Many people with no car could have one.

Today the "rights" of the criminals are more protected then the victim.

Well, I always tell people the death penalty is not about deterring crime, it's about JUSTICE.

Crime will always occur, so let there always be JUSTICE!!!