Life in Prison Death Penalty?

I disagree with the comment that it makes no sense to ruin another's life because they ruined someone else's life. That's not what is happening there. The court system is not ruining the offender's life; they did that to themselves when they ruined someone else's life. If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime. There are consequences to certain crimes & they well know/knew that ahead of time. To get life in prison means you had to have done something very serious & overboard. So the punishment fits the crime.

I do not agree with the death penalty. Life in prison is appropriate for certain crimes. They ended a life. Life in prison is not ending theirs. They still have a chance to live, even if only in prison (where they don't get tortured, but in fact still do get to live & repent). The ppl whom they took lives from, don't.

From the viewpoint of the rest of us:

For the worst crimes, life without parole is better, for many reasons. I’m against the death penalty not because of sympathy for criminals but because it doesn’t reduce crime, prolongs the anguish of families of murder victims, costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, worst of all, risks executions of innocent people.

The worst thing about it. Errors:

The system can make tragic mistakes. As of now, 140 wrongly convicted people on death row have been exonerated. We’ll never know for sure how many people have been executed for crimes they didn’t commit. DNA is rarely available in homicides, often irrelevant and can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.

Keeping killers off the streets for good:

Life without parole, on the books in most states, also prevents reoffending. It means what it says, and spending the rest of your life locked up, knowing you’ll never be free, is no picnic. Two big advantages:

-an innocent person serving life can be released from prison

-life without parole costs less than the death penalty

Costs, a big surprise to many people:

Study after study has found that the death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison. The process is much more complex than for any other kind of criminal case. The largest costs come at the pre-trial and trial stages. These apply whether or not the defendant is convicted, let alone sentenced to death.

Crime reduction (deterrence):

Homicide rates for states that use the death penalty are consistently higher than for those that don’t. The most recent FBI data confirms this. For people without a conscience, fear of being caught is the best deterrent. The death penalty is no more effective in deterring others than life sentences.

Who gets it:

The death penalty isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. Practically everyone sentenced to death had to rely on an overworked public defender.

Victims:

People assume that families of murder victims want the death penalty imposed. t isn't necessarily so. Some are against it on moral grounds. But even families who have supported it in principle have testified to the protracted and unavoidable damage that the death penalty process does to families like theirs and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

It comes down to whether we should keep the death penalty for retribution or revenge.

I have ALWAYS said that! What people don't seem to realise is that they don't put you to death the next day,it takes years. If a person is,say,25 when they're sentenced,they could be 40 or 45 by the time it happens. After being in jail for 15-20 years,with NO chance of ever getting out,what more is there to live for? You've seen all the pictures of your neices and nephews,you're friends have settled into their lives and your parents are just getting older. Also,you havent had a relationship (and all the good things that go with it) in all that time and never will again. In that scenario,the death penalty would actually be right on time,in my opinion.

That depends.

Am I really guilty of the crime? You'd be surprised how many people on Death Row were put there due to sloppy or downright corrupt judges or lawyers. Usually when the prosecution asks for the death penalty, it's because the crime made headlines due to how horrible it was, which puts the whole legal system under a lot of pressure to get a conviction.

If I really am guilty what was my purpose for the crime? If I was a real sociopathic monster, I might push for life in prison, and then insist on my rights for parole hearings, just to ensure that my name gets published in the newspapers every few years - just to remind people of who I am and what I did.

If I were the offender, I would definitely pick death penalty. For a serious offender, I would pick life in prison because it is cheaper and the person is forced to think about what they've done and live with some pretty messed up people in prison for the rest of their lives.

I'm not sure what I would rather, although with prison, there is a possible chance of early release I suppose.

Personally, I disagree with the idea of both life sentences and the death penalty. It makes no sense to ruin another life, just because they ruined someone else's.

Of course, there has to be measures in place to ensure crimes don't pay, but I am more of the inclination to believe that laws should protect citizens, rather than punish offenders.

Being I am not in prison and not facing any capitol charges I would also say death by toxic injection.

However once you are in prison and facing those choices it might seem easier to say life even if it's in max. security facility.

Bring back the firing squad. A blindfold a cigarette & playing the French anthem.

The death penalty. It's so much more humane.

Look at reality instead of speculation.

LIFE: MUCH PREFERRED OVER EXECUTION:

99.7% of murderers tells us "Give me life, not execution"

Dudley Sharp

Since 1973, there have been about 50,000 murderers (1) who may have qualified for the death penalty, based upon post Furman laws.

As of 2012, only 0.3% of those volunteered for execution and were executed.

The rest, 99.7%, have fought for life and against the death penalty/execution, using plea bargains, trials, appeals and commutation, in any fashion possible to avoid death.

No surprise. Death is feared more than life. Life is preferred over death, not just with murderers, but with all of us, save for the determined suicidal.

That's a fact based review of which sanction murderers find to be more severe and is just one example of why executions are found to deter more than life (2).

FOOTNOTES:

1) a) As of 2012, there have been about 8300 sent to death row since 1973. Of those, about 140, or 1.7%, have "volunteered" for execution. So far, 98.3% of those sent to death row prefer life over execution.

b) Only about 1/3 of all death penalty cases that go to trial end with a death sentence; 2/3 of the defendants received sentences less than death, as they wanted. Total, that is about 25, 200 cases.

c) Even more death penalty eligible cases, an additional 24,800 or so, are otherwise, given sentences less than death, as they wished.

Of the 50,000 eligible cases, only about 140 "volunteered" for execution.

99.7% chose life.

NOTE: I estimate that about 10% of all murders (that being 700, 000, post Furman, 1973-2012) are death penalty eligible, or about 70, 000 murders. I reduced that to 50,000 murderers, based upon some cases of multiple capital murders per murderer.

Some estimate the percentage of capital murders to be as high as 15-20%, as a percentage of all murders., which would mean it much less likely they prefer death over life, than my review shows.

(2) See deterrence reviews:

The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/death-penalt...

Innocents More At Risk Without Death Penalty

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/innocents-mo...

it really depends on the circumstances and what crime was committed