How do you feel about the death penalty?

[Whateverist]

That and I just hate to enable the racist haters who are out to incarcerate or kill as many black men as possible. The system is far from fool proof and we have far too many fools.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

If anyone actually understood prison, they'd know that Life in prison is a worse penalty than Death.

Additionally, we know we have executed people wrongly, and that people whose death sentences were delayed were eventually overturned by new/better evidence... had we killed them, it would have been a posthumous exoneration, if anyone even bothered to look (what lawyer is really going to look a the case of a dead guy, in an attempt to prove he was innocent all along?).

Do people who commit such heinous acts deserve a bullet in the head, etc? Sure. But justice is not about revenge, it's about protecting society. Those who want to advocate for "victim's rights" (translate: special rights for those who have had a crime committed against them or their family members), as an excuse to do cruel and unusual things to the perpetrator, are damaging the very rule of law they seek to rely upon, by turning the law into a weapon of revenge... turning the nation/state into a murderer in order to show murder is wrong. Really?

As for the psychological programs, I can understand studying them (we already do), but if you think you can train an adult sociopath to learn empathy for others, you've never met one.

[Excited Penguin]

It's one of the most disturbing facts to learn about the US and it's one of the reasons I will never step foot there - not with a mind to settle, at least. Not because I plan to start killing people someday, but I couldn't live with indirectly supporting a government that practices such barbaric acts.

[abaris]

That and I just hate to enable the racist haters who are out to incarcerate or kill as many black men as possible.  The system is far from fool proof and we have far too many fools.

The system will never be fool proof. Even if we discard poverty and not being able to get a qualified defense. Even if we got rid of racism. Mistakes will be made. And in a life or death situation, mistakes are potentially fatal.

As a person, I can understand the need for revenge. Especially on the side of the victim's relatives. I'm sure, I could kill anyone, hurting my loved ones, with my bare hands. But it's not the state's business to carry out my revenge. The state's business is to keep society as safe as possible. And that's just as easily achieved by locking them up.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

Pointless, barbaric, and almost never just.

[DespondentFishdeathMasochismo]

I believe it's incredibly hypocritical. To say killing is wrong, therefor we will kill you... for uh... "retribution" - is bullshit, just proving that murder and lust are a basic fundamental part of human nature. Someone gets killed, they lust to see them die, they lust to see some good ol' retribution. It's abject hypocrisy. What about the people who were convicted and turned out to be innocent years later. How do we go from A) people being born and the epitome of cuteness and innocent love which can do no wrong; to B) May god have mercy on your soul, everyone wants you dead. Fuck the death penalty, it's vindictive and barbaric crap.

---

Not to mention, it costs a shit load of money for appeals for the death penalty. Inmates on death row will be in prison for dozens of years before they die. I've even heard that it costs more to have the death penalty, but that's absolutely beside the point.

[paulpablo]

Killing people for killing people because killing people is bad seems a tad confused to me, doesn't it to you?

Isn't this the standard way punishment works for lots of crimes?  

If you bind someone's hands, coerce them into a vehicle then drive somewhere with them and imprison them and the police find out, they will drive to you, bind your hands behind your back, force you into their vehicle and imprison you.

The police do things to people all the time as a form of punishment that are considered crimes themselves.  

Stealing, kidnapping, violence, shootings, forced imprisonment.

I am against the death penalty though.  I think it could work if it was used sensibly but I have absolutely no faith that it would be used sensibly all the time.  There are some cases where I think it would be the most humane thing to do.

[DespondentFishdeathMasochismo]

Killing people for killing people because killing people is bad seems a tad confused to me, doesn't it to you?

Isn't this the standard way punishment works for lots of crimes?  

If you bind someone's hands, coerce them into a vehicle then drive somewhere with them and imprison them and the police find out, they will drive to you, bind your hands behind your back, force you into their vehicle and imprison you.

The police do things to people all the time as a form of punishment that are considered crimes themselves.  

Stealing, kidnapping, violence, shootings, forced imprisonment.

I am against the death penalty though.  I think it could work if it was used sensibly but I have absolutely no faith that it would be used sensibly all the time.  There are some cases where I think it would be the most humane thing to do.

That's a terrible model of policing. If policing people is just about getting revenge, then it's just a petty and appalling form of abuse, no different than enslaving others because you think they're lower life forms. If policing was actually about justice and doing what's best for society, we would be trying to rehabilitate criminals, instead of demonizing them and further alienating them from society, into just becoming worse criminals. You're saying that it's okay that police officers abuse people, because criminals do it too? It's still a double standard you've made.

[paulpablo]

Isn't this the standard way punishment works for lots of crimes?  

If you bind someone's hands, coerce them into a vehicle then drive somewhere with them and imprison them and the police find out, they will drive to you, bind your hands behind your back, force you into their vehicle and imprison you.

The police do things to people all the time as a form of punishment that are considered crimes themselves.  

Stealing, kidnapping, violence, shootings, forced imprisonment.

I am against the death penalty though.  I think it could work if it was used sensibly but I have absolutely no faith that it would be used sensibly all the time.  There are some cases where I think it would be the most humane thing to do.

That's a terrible model of policing. If policing people is just about getting revenge, then it's just a petty and appalling form of abuse, no different than enslaving others because you think they're lower life forms. If policing was actually about justice and doing what's best for society, we would be trying to rehabilitate criminals, instead of demonizing them and further alienating them from society, into just becoming worse criminals. You're saying that it's okay that police officers  abuse people, because criminals do it too? It's still a double standard you've made.

No I'm saying that's what they already do.  It's not a proposal.  The police take people's money, shoot people, force people into prisons, use violent force and so on. 
I'm not saying it's justified or not justified, it's just a statement that this is what the police do. I didn't give my opinion of these actions in the post at all.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I oppose all forms of capital punishment in all societies for all crimes. There is not, never has been, and never will be a crime that merits death at the hands of the state.

Boru