Views on the Death Penalty? (a poll)

[paulpablo]

I am pro-death penalty, both for murder or for rape, but never mandatory. And I actually voted for CA to revoke its death penalty, since our death row, up in Marin County, is way overfull, and we barely ever execute anyone.

I am not for all these fancy schmancy modes of death that are supposed to be quicker than whatever it replaces. I would only allow gunshot to the back of the head if I were dictator of the USA. Quick. Cheap. Still scary.

I don't believe the DP to be a deterrent, but nor do I feel that way about LWOP. They are both punishments. And prisons aren't enough of a punishment (buying reese's pb cups from a commissary? I wish I could go out and get some right now!).

Do something about jury selection. Do something about corruption in the law(!). But some (fairly few) folks need to leave society.

I think rape is an awful crime but definitely not one that should be punishable by death.  Just because I tend to think rape is a crime that people get falsely accused of quite often, it's difficult to prove or disprove in some cases, and a lot of the cases involve a lot of emotions which can result in rash decisions.

As for the main question of the thread though it's very difficult.  I know for certain I believe some people deserve death, but the law and courts are run by humans and somewhere along the line someone is almost definitely going to get wrongly put to death if you have a death penalty in place.  I'm sitting on the fence on this topic.