Death Penalty

[BGrantFan]

I thought this thread was going to be about Auburn's football program.

 

[Natebishop3]

I thought this thread was going to be about Auburn's football program.

Haha... Newton is carrying out that sentence.

 

[Denny Crane]

The American legal system is a mammoth bureaucracy. But I suppose it always correctly and judiciously dispenses death sentences, because this is one government system that gets it right 5000 times out of 5000 times.

And if you happen to not be white, well, tough:

The american legal system is far more municipal and state courts than it is federal courts. In fact, the number of death penalty cases in the federal system (non-military) are incredibly few. Maybe 20, and those would be of the Julius & Ethel Rosenberg variety.

I completely agree with you that the justice system is tougher on non-whites (blacks) than it should be, though it raises a slew of related questions and issues that are completely unrelated to the death penalty. This does not address whether there should be a death penalty in the first place.

I don't view the death penalty as an eye-for-an-eye sort of thing. I see it as fitting punishment for heinous crimes. It should be enforced because we care a lot about people not committing heinous crimes and not punishing people for committing crimes would make the law (any law) rather meaningless.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

I am to the point where I view the death penalty as no longer being much of a deterrent, so I'll just take whichever option costs me less but still keeps the guy off the streets.

 

[DP]

FWIW, no innocent person has ever been executed.

Some people with a lot of time and money are trying to make the case that Cameron Todd was innocent but executed by the state of Texas in 1989.

Also for the record, in the history of the USA (as a nation, since 1776), less than 5000 people have been executed in total. Most of those in a 20 year period around the 1930s.

I might have my facts wrong, but Illinois refuses to do the death penalty. It might be that someone is putting into the system to be executed, on death row.. and then the state figured out it was someone else.

 

[Denny Crane]

I might have my facts wrong, but Illinois refuses to do the death penalty. It might be that someone is putting into the system to be executed, on death row.. and then the state figured out it was someone else.

The governor of Illinois suspended executions pending a review of the procedures and facts that put people on death row.

http://www.dailyillini.com/blogs/di...nois-death-penalty-can-wait-for-fixes-funding

In 2000, former Illinois Governor George Ryan put a moratorium in place on the death penalty in the state, clearing death row as he left office. This fall, the race between incumbent Pat Quinn (who has maintained Ryan’s moratorium and said he would continue to do so in the immediate future) and Republican Bill Brady (who has said he would lift it) will determine the death penalty’s future. Quinn has said he does support the death penalty in certain instances, but has kept the moratorium intact until the mistake-prone system has been revised. With an 89.9 percent forecast of a Brady victory (by the New York Times, as of September 21), the return of the death penalty is a very possible reality.

 

[MARIS61]

Those are pretty much the reasons I'm opposed. I know if I were a criminal and had the choice of death or life in solitary, I'd choose death. Can you imagine how hellish it'd be to go for years with nothing to do but listen to your own thoughts?

In my case I expect I'd be thoroughly entertained.

 

[MARIS61]

I have reasonable faith in the courts, just not in government bureaucracies.

With all the appeals processes and 12+ year waiting periods before a person can be executed, and how few there really are, it's not difficult to see how the innocent get off.

Were the Department of Justice not corrupt, no other branch of government could be.

 

[MARIS61]

The American legal system is a mammoth bureaucracy. But I suppose it always correctly and judiciously dispenses death sentences, because this is one government system that gets it right 5000 times out of 5000 times.

And if you happen to not be white, well, tough:

That's a compelling case that not enough white criminals have been given the death penalty.

I fail to see how it has any saving significance for non-white criminals, who have been given exactly what they deserved more consistently.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

this is from a local lawyer....

This is just where I differ from alot of people. As disgusting and vile these mens crimes were and as much as I would like him to suffer, murder is murder. But put that aside because everyone has emotions and feelings on the topic, which I understand. Here's what really makes me a firm advocate for the death penalty - two things. First - I think that putting a person in prison for the rest of his life is far worse than killing him. And Second...and the one that really gets me...based on our present system and the number of current inmates on death row...after each prisoner went through every appeal proccess, held up the courts for years in litigation, sat in cell for 20 years while this whole thing went through the courts, it costs the US $232.7 million per year to keep him incarcerated. In a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty...$11.5 million. How much money could we be putting to our education systems or countless other programs if we merely locked this guy up in a dark cell for the rest of his life? All because we need to play God and take this mans life away as he did one of ours? I say no.

Bottom line. Spend less on appeals, fry 'em and stick a fork in 'em, and then we have more money for schools.

 

[Denny Crane]

That's a compelling case that not enough white criminals have been given the death penalty.

I fail to see how it has any saving significance for non-white criminals, who have been given exactly what they deserved more consistently.

Normally, I don't agree with much Maris posts, but this is actually a good point.

 

[maxiep]

Emotionally, I'm all for the death penalty. However, I prefer thinking over feeling, which is why I'm against it.

1. Killing someone is more expensive than locking them up for life.

2. The death penalty is irrevokable.

3. It hasn't proven to be a deterrent.

4. Keeping the cases up for review is harder on the victims' families than locking them up forever. At least that's closure.

5. There either is an afterlife or there isn't. If there isn't, then you've given the person sweet release. If there is, then 30-50 years of hell on earth doesn't rob the real hell of much time off of eternity.