Views on the Death Penalty? (a poll)

[Catholic_Lady]

Life is sacred.

How about this life? Is it sacred?

Yes.

[Ravenshire]

Intellectually, I do not believe in the death penalty but there is a dark place in me that understands the need to hurt someone who has hurt me.  I don't like that part of my personality but it is there.

Indeed. I could see myself in prison because one of my daughters were raped and murdered. Even though I'm against the death penalty, there is a part of me that would want to kill the bastard and given the proper circumstance... Who knows.

[Ravenshire]

For people using the "What if it was your family?" argument - You do realize that the reason courts of Law and judicial calls are decided by impartial entities without any previous relationship with both the victim and the transgressor is precisely to prevent penalties based on emotional responses and apply the best possible punishment rationally, right? To say that the victims should have a saying in the punishment is contrary to most penal principles and it violates Justice itself .

Abstractly speaking, the reason we punish criminals is not because they harmed a specific victim, whether it's Jane or John, it's because they broke the law, constitute a danger to society and reveal personal indifference towards our most sacred rules and values.Criminal law is based on values, values we considered unanimously accepted by most people, and those who don't respect the law are violating and reacting with disdain and apathy towards those values and therefore are not fit to live in our society with complete freedom because they need to be rehabilitated or imprisoned. To make things easier to understand - The reason we punish someone who commits murder is not because "they murdered X" but because that person broke the law saying "Thou shall not murder" - We don't punish the result, we punish the conduct, the action itself - That's why we punish attempted crimes and not just consummated ones. Crime punishes our actions, not the results - The result is merely aggravating and helps define the legal definition of the crime being appreciated, but the reason we punish people is because their actions reveal antagonism towards our values.

Hear, hear!!

Well said Dys!

[KUSA]

How about this life? Is it sacred?

Yes.

sa·cred
ˈsākrəd/
adjective
connected with God (or the gods) or dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving veneration.
"sacred rites"
synonyms: holy, hallowed, blessed, consecrated, sanctified, venerated, revered; archaicblest

Now that I think about it, this fellow would be revered by Yahwee.

[loganonekenobi]

In a science fiction called Babylone 5  instead  of a  death penalty they rewrote the persons brain thus killing the offending personality be keeping the life.  Once that tech is in place then my vote would change.  Of course once the tech is in place the question (vote) would really be a moot point.

That Babylon 5 thing is exactly the same as the death penalty. The person is wiped out. The only "life" remaining is a mindless body with all the self-awareness of a carrot. Then they rewire the brain with a new personality. It's a new person in the body of the offender but the original person is dead. No difference at all from killing them.

yeah that makes me giggle and feel all warm and fuzzy.

[Catholic_Lady]

Yes.

sa·cred
ˈsākrəd/
adjective
connected with God (or the gods) or dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving veneration.
"sacred rites"
synonyms: holy, hallowed, blessed, consecrated, sanctified, venerated, revered; archaicblest

Now that I think about it, this fellow would be revered by Yahwee.

I believe all human life is sacred. It is not conditional. Nothing can take away the sacredness of a life, even doing horrible things does not take away the sacredness of a person's life.

[KUSA]

I believe all human life is sacred. It is not conditional. Nothing can take away the sacredness of a life, even doing horrible things does not take away the sacredness of a person's life.

It's odd that your God killed millions of people but you are against the death penalty.

If life is sacred then why is your God a blood drunk killer?

[The Valkyrie]

Just to lighten a serious subject for a moment.

I was watching an episode of an old 80's show a few weeks ago and a TV interviewer was talking to a judge known as a "hanging judge"

I cracked up at:

"Judge, where do you stand on the electric chair?"

"Right next to the switch!"

Now, carry on...

[Silver]

The god of the bible supports the death penalty: look at how many of his good creations he murdered in the Old Testament.

[Pyrrho]

The god of the bible supports the death penalty: look at how many of his good creations he murdered in the Old Testament.

Not only that, but many of the laws demanded the death penalty.  So God, according to the Bible, wants people to be killed for all sorts of things, like a woman not being a virgin when she marries, a disobedient son, etc.  Stoning seems to be God's preferred method, which would likely be extremely unpleasant.

Here is an article on the New Testament view of the death penalty:

https://carm.org/capital-punishment-new-testament

For those who do not wish to bother with reading it, there is nothing in the New Testament to suggest that the death penalty is wrong.


Of course, the Bible endorses slavery, rape, and all sorts of other evils, so, if anything, this should give one reason to reject capital punishment.