Death penalty. For or against?

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That is a hoot!

ruveyn

I'm not sure you're the one to tell me what being a Christian means.

Ideally, a clergyman is present prior to the execution and he offers the conedmned one last chance to confess his sins, ask God for forgiveness, etc.

But does not stop the switch from being thrown on the poison injected into the arm. That is really some big help, isn't it?

ruveyn

It is not the place of the clergy to interfere with a state execution ordained by the courts.

Just pointing out that the guy you follow was fairly unequivocal in his thoughts upon executions, and the revised rules concerning 'an eye for an eye' So it seems fairly simple to me that to if you accept him as the son of god, the messiah, the saviour who died so that your sins can be forgiven, you sort of need to follow all his teachings.

Thank you.

You're welcome

I can't be bothered to read the whole thread, but I'm against it, in all cases.

I am all for the right to revenge though, so if someone kills the person who'd murdered their child/parent/spouse/etc I think the penalty should be only symbolic, like 5 years max.

Death is the permanent penalty box topic

I admit I am a tad uncertain. I know there are murderers I would like to see dead (Paul Bernardo), some already executed (Ted Bundy) and some who escaped the death penalty, thankfully (Hurricane Carter, and Steven Truscott), because they were either found to be innocent or there was a miscarriage of justice. This no doubt contributed what legislators had in mind when the death penalty was repealed--the possibility that an innocent person being executed.

There are those who have been executed and were innocent, and exonerated years later. An example is deserters from World War I who were shot due to cowardice. Now we know many were suffering from PTSD.

TallyMan mentioned the hideous scenario of the accused being able to taunt and threaten the victim's family in court. If this occurs, the trial should be suspended and the accused warned that s/he will spend longer in prison and that the trial will be postponed until s/he can behave. Also, if someone was really innocent then that person would not behave in such a manner, or is risking the judge's position of fairness.

At any rate, I believe that in the case where there is no doubt whatsoever the murderer should be placed in total solitary for the rest of his/her life, and given the option of ending it should this be too horrible to bear.

Ooooo Goodie lets have us a lynching

If you demand death, want death but are not willing to induce it, then yes, I think wanting something, screaming for it, demanding it greedily but being too fine or too afraid to do it yourself is pathetic.

It's a whole different thing to not want death or even to just not care and not be willing or be able to do it. That's being transparent and true to yourself. But I wasn't talking about it, so I am not going to assume that you are either.

To further clarify my point; to want and demand a punishment onto another done by others for you while you do nothing is just plain stupid.

If one cannot truly stand behind their demand - any demand - then why demand that thing? To demand it anyway is a sign of one of the hugest weaknesses in character. It means they're either foolish and arrogant or blatantly unaware of the consequences of their desires.

In either case, it's irresponsibility at its highest. And you don't need particular skill to be responsible.

just some good old fashioned vengance.

and I'm not opting for it to go unpunished either, if it was me I'd turn myself in immediately. but I'd still want to do it.

Human beings always want vengeance, retribution, redress. It is hardwired into us, which is why turning the other cheek and loving our enemies goes so much against the grain.

I'm against it because if you enact the death penalty you are sinking just as low as the murderer. Also, if someone is dead they have no chance at all of reforming and becoming a responsible citizen. Society can be protected from possible further murders by locking the murderer up, so killing is unnecessary, and in US states with the death penalty, the crime rate is often higher than in states without the death penalty. Basically, I think it's wrong.

Old fashioned vengance leads to wrongful convictions, so no.

If CP were about vengeance, it would not be nearly as systematic or methodical as it currently is. State execution is a science. Mob justice is pretty sloppy by comparison.