The Death Penalty - is it working? What do you think?

In light of the American judiciary mentality 'it is better to let nine guilty men free than to convict one innocent man' the death penalty seems to have a higher cost than value.

There are multiple cases of 'criminals' who were convicted to death but then exonerated due to DNA evidence. It seems to me immoral to take someones life, an irreversible act, when it is possible that they were innocent. It makes much more sense to sentence an individual to life in jail without parole. It actually costs less to keep a prisoner for their entire life than it does to execute them, and again it is possible to release them if in fact they are found to have been wrongly convicted.

The only positive thing that I see in the death penalty is its symbolic nature. This punishment is the ultimate risk for a criminal and if they are aware of it they might be deterred from committing the horrible action which otherwise would have earned them a death sentence.

All in all, however, I believe that never killing an innocent man is more valuable to the integrity of our enlightened society - even if we give up the intimidation this judicial power evokes

Ok, I don't know if those graphs are the truth or not since the government lies about so many things...

But I know this: I would assume that the average criminal, being uneducated as many of them are, doesn't have any idea how many people were put to death this year or 10 years ago. I would also go so far as to assume that many criminals most likely don't even know where their state stands on the death penalty. Also, I think most people don't commit murders thinking that they will get caught. So if you don't think you will get caught, then why would you care about the death penalty? On the other side there are people who don't plan a murder, but instead do it out of uncontrollable anger in the moment, I would think that those people are also not thinking about the death penalty, but are simply consumed with anger.

So, to answer the question, no. I don't think the death penalty does anything to reduce future murders.

Also I might add, while some people feel that the death penalty is so horrible... I think life in prison sounds even worse.

edit - I'll check out that book, it sounds interesting.

The death penalty is not about trying to bring down violent, even if it seems to work that way. It is about closure and retribution for the victims of the murderer and their families. Most people who oppose the death penalty understand this to be true.

Some opponents say that it costs more to execute them,which is true. The reason it is true is the inefficiency of our system. Ted Bundy for example went through the appeals process 3 times. I say that is ridiculous and frivolous. I would add that Bundy's case was not the exception. It is closer to the norm.

I say,if you oppose the death penalty, fine. However, their life in prison should be spartan in the extreme. Communication with people on the outside should almost never happen. When it does, it should be about their case or cases and that is it. If someone gets a visitor and they are found with drugs, weapons, or contraband of any kind, they should be removed, then prosecuted. Further, that prisoner should lose ALL visiting priviledges, period. Food should be healthy and without junk and extras. Gang mentality in prisons should not be tolerated at all. You must have some system of punishment for offenses committed on the inside-- more jail time than life in prison is just, DUH. Finally, the sentences handed down. "Life in prison" shouldn't cease to mean life in prison after 20 years of time served.

For those of you who would consider these things too harsh, I would remind you of the offenses against humanity of those individuals. And, the fact that their victims were robbed of their right to the life which you wish to claim to be so precious!

I believe in victims rights. I think they should be able to reep whatever sort of punishment on the guilty as they see fit in order to work through their own grief. Only the victims families can decide that. Some victims want revenge and want the criminal to die the same agonizing death as thir loved one did, some however, do not. They are able to bring closure through their own peace of mind, and spirituality. Execution can often bring more pain and suffering to the victims family.

Besides, I am a firm believer that some people can change. A lot of men/women on death row have a lot of extra time on their hands and they come to terms with what they actually did. Like the leader of the Crypts gang...who was clearly a man who was lost to begin with. He wrote childrens books while on death row, educating inner city kids to stay away from the very gang he created (and others). He wanted them to learn from his mistakes. I personally, had no problem with him sitting in a cell the rest of his life offering a nother path to the very children that could end up in the very cell he was in.

BUT none of my family members or loved ones were not mamed or killed by him. So I should have no say to what happends. Just because he changed his life, doent disreguard the lives he took or their families pain and suffering.

Saving an innocent man from an unjust death is more important than putting a guilty man to death. Furthermore, rotting in jail for 40-50 years is a far worse punishment than an early death (though the greater travesty is that of the innocent man condemned to death, as in the first statement).

In a very few specific cases, yes, I have been tempted to change my stance on the death penalty. I think everyone has moments like that. Very few people are so adamant and close-minded that they reject all positions of their opposition.

I believe it does work and I have no problem with it as long as there is 100% conclusive evidence that the suspect did commit the crime. I would hate for an innocent person to be executed for a crime they did not commit. I think DNA helps out with this. Let me just say if anyone ever kills one of mine they better hope the state gives them an injection because that shot will be a heck of a lot more humane then what I would do if it were left up to me.

No. First, about cost, you will find that the death penalty does cost much more than life without parole. Here is part of a state report, with links to a few others.

Kansas: “The study counted death penalty case costs through to execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted through to the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000. For death penalty cases, the pre-trial and trial level expenses were the most expensive part, 49% of the total cost. The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases. The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case).” (. Kansas: Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections)

Links to others: ("The Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina" Duke University, May 1993)

The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research's Report, "Tennessee's Death Penalty: Costs and Consequences." http://www.comptroller.state.tn.us/orea/reports/de...

There are many more, and all reach the same conclusion.

You talked about homicide rates- I've looked at them and I see that they are higher in states and regions with the death penalty than in those without them.

Source: FBI http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_04.html and similar for other years over the last decade.

Other things--- As of now, 130 people on death row have been exonerated. Very few of these cases involved DNA evidence. It is rarely available (from homicide scenes) for testing- from 10-15% of the time. Most wrongful convictions are caused by eyewitness errors.

www.innocenceproject.org

By the way, crime rates did drop in the late 90's - among the most significant factors were a good economy and the waning of the crack epidemic.

i think that capital punishment should be more enforced in my opinion we dont do it enough we have murders and other criminals just sitting in a place to waste honest hard working peoples money. No im not saying that we should just shoot them in the head on spot we should give them a trail and if it is them who did it without a doubt give them a weeks tops and we should give them the needle.

instead of putting them in a cage with free room and board a free gym free food and just a shanking to be worried about every now and then.

people complain about jails being over crowded and what not this system works. just like jason said the graphs work off of each other people value you there lifes

My answer is only a contribution to contries that diswon the death penelty. E.G Australia, recently the Bali Bombers were excecuted and they proudly cheered the Balinese on because they did not have to get there hands dirty. I think that countries like thes should make the margin of the death penelty clearer because from the way Australia acted it seems they would be happy to send people over to Bali to be excecuted instead of dirtying the OWN HANDS.

Hope this helps

its not working efficiently, the appeals process takes forever so by the time they get around to the execution they have wasted even more tax dollars.

really its only exercised these days in extreme cases, and i have no problem with it morally, i believe this earth is better off with out some people. People need to stop putting themselves in the convicts seat and start putting themselves in the victims family's seat.