Do you support capital punishment under the rule of law?

[bobthedrummer]

Poll question: Do you support capital punishment under the rule of law?

I know this "New American Century" has, so far, seen the rule of law severely abused.

I'm for the restoration of the rule of law to all citizens, and I support the death penalty as one punishment in extreme cases.

What are your views on capital punishment today?

Comments are, as always, encouraged.

[Deep13]

1. Don't actively support it, but not really against it either.

The problem I have with opposition to the death penalty is that everyone is going to die sooner or later anyway. Is killing someone sooner than he would have died on his own really a punishment? I think forcing someone to endure the living hell of imprisonment for the rest of his life is far worse.

[notesdev]

2. I would support it only in extremely limited situations

I don't trust the government to administer a death penalty, even a small chance of executing the wrong person must be avoided, lest it stain all our hands with murder.

On the other hand... there is a depth of depravity beyond which there is no other way to assure with complete certainty that there will not be an opportunity to have a crime happen again. For lack of a better term I would refer to such crimes as "acts of singular evil", crimes which cause more suffering than any pentinence or restitution could mitigate. A mass murderer would qualify, as IMO would a lot of Wall St. characters, and arguably two out of every three versions of Windows.

[Edweird]

3. I support the death penalty, but I do have issues with our

present law enforcement an criminal justice systems. In our system 'more arrests' = 'good cop' and 'more convictions' = 'good DA'. More arrests and convictions has no relationship to justice - in fact it provides incentive to 'do whatever it takes' to obtain those arrests and convictions. So while I support the death penalty, in theory at any rate, I do have serious misgivings about our current path to it.

[sharesunited]

4. All incarcerated persons have a right to a length of rope and a sturdy overhanging pipe or beam.

You ask whether society should impose death.

I ask whether society has a right to incarcerate anyone without also providing them a safe means to opt out of the entire scene and voluntarily depart.

[bluetrain]

12. I agree.

[EFerrari]

5. No.

[LeftishBrit]

6. No

We haven't had it in the UK for over 40 years and I'm happy with that. There is always the risk of executing someone innocent; and it puts the entire citizenry in the role of vengeful mob. There is no evidence that it serves as a deterrent; and those who might seem most deserving of the death penalty - psychopaths and fanatical terrorists - are the least likely to be deterred by it.

[NightWatcher]

7. the death penalty as practiced is inherently unfair and applied disproportionately to the poor

so NO, I'm against it in ALL cases.

[csziggy]

18. And, given the low quality of police work, there is no certainty of guilt

Even if only one case in a million is a wrongfully convicted innocent, that is too many when it comes to the death penalty.

Aside from those factors, the death penalty as applied in this country takes too long (in an effort to make sure of guilt) and is actually applied in too few of the types of cases that might actually warrant it. In other words, it is too expensive to be an effective deterrent.

There are people who should never be permitted to return to society - lock them up, throw away the key and give them no chances to hurt another human. But the death penalty is not the answer.

[aikoaiko]

8. YES: certainty of agency + heinous crime + no compelling mitigating circumstances = death penalty

It really comes down to those three things for me and yes I think the DP is applied to often when agency is not certain, the crime is not heinous, and there were compelling mitigating circumstances.


But yes, I support it being one possible punishment for certain crimes.

[kctim]

9. Yes I support it

but I do not support how much it costs to coddle those on death row. Or any inmate really.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. No. I don't like murder being committed in my name. If i were religous

i would say it adds to my karma but since i am not, i will just say i find is morally repugnant

[HelenWheels]

11. Living in prison worse

I would rather be executed than spend the rest of my life in prison. I worked in corrections for 15 years and living in prison is a bad life.

[GliderGuider]

13. No civilized society murders its own citizens. nt

[Courtesy Flush]

14. As Americans, we're conditioned to support it.

Part of me says fry the bastard who commits horrible acts. But I keep seeing stories of people being proven innocent, and I lose faith in our system. Yes, it's a fact that people will be wrongly convicted under our system. But to be wrongly executed is unforgivable.

People like Ted Bundy, who admitted his guilt, are easy cases. Others are coerced into confessions, or they are wrongly convicted. If I trusted the government, I'd support the death penalty, but I think they have no compunction about executing the innocent.

[TexasObserver]

15. No, of course not. It's uncivilized, unjust, and inhumane.

[PeaceNikki]

16. This sums it up for me as well.

No way, no how, not now, not ever.

[TreasonousBastard]

17. No. Not even "not" under the rule of law...

Even though there may be a trial and all the trappings of "justice," the death penalty assumes that we have the right to order the death of another human in some circumstances.

I also assumes that we have the judgment, intelligence, and moral center to correctly issue that order with the certainty that it contains no bias or error.

We have neither the right nor the ability.

[Solly Mack]

19. Nope