The Death Penalty - are you for or against it and why?

[Ace Otana]

I figured you would be against it, in light of your restrictive views of owning personal weapons. Most who want to ban guns also want to ban executions.

I guess you fall into a gray area like I do.. I'm very Progressive, yet 100% for the right to own hand guns out in the open. Most progressives want guns banned.

I said I was for the death penalty.

[reverendjeremiah]

I figured you would be against it, in light of your restrictive views of owning personal weapons. Most who want to ban guns also want to ban executions.

I guess you fall into a gray area like I do.. I'm very Progressive, yet 100% for the right to own hand guns out in the open. Most progressives want guns banned.

I said I was for the death penalty.

Not you..Ace...I meant that to go to ACE..look at the quote names.

..goofball...

[Ace Otana]

[technophobe]

VOTING INSTRUCTIONS: If you support the death penalty for ANY reason, or for ANY law, then you support the death penalty on this poll. So, for example, if you support the death penalty for murder but not for rape then you would vote "I support it". If you are completely against the death penalty then you vote would vote "I oppose it".

If you post on this discussion, I only ask that you vote in the poll (either before or after discussion) as well so that we can see how this strong atheist community views the death penalty.

I started this thread as the result of a conversation with Ashendant so that we can discuss it more indepth and in topic with the rest of the membership on this wonderful forum.

Thankyou

I am against the DP. It is unfairly applied and executed, no pun intended. In the U.S., if you are a person of color and you commit a capital offense, you are more likely than a white defendant to be charged under the DP. Ditto if you are poor. Few of those who receive the DP receive an adequate defense... the State has an almost infinite amount of resources to mount a prosecution, but few defendants are able to spare no expense. Most have public defenders and even those who don't often have attorneys who are paid for with public funds. Rarely can a defendant pay for an adequate defense that may (and should) involve separate investigators and private/independent examination of the evidence. Then there is the expense of appeals, which can run the cost of an execution into the millions and for those who say "Oh, fuck the appeals, they're guilty anyway," they need to stop and consider how many INNOCENT individuals have been released in the past decade due to DNA exoneration.

And mostly..... I'm against the death penalty because it's just plain fucking wrong to kill another human being, no matter how heinous their crime. Two wrongs will never make it right.

[reverendjeremiah]

This Sae forum is screwing me up

[Ace Otana]

This Sae forum is screwing me up

You're not the only one. One, Saerules is enough for any forum. I'm having a really hard time recognising who's who.

[Anymouse]

I agree with SummerQueen..

Why should we keep murderers alive at the expense of society and our hard earned tax $$$

This is my thinking

Because the death penalty is so irreversible, the system is (generally) designed to ensure that the convicted have all possible avenues for appeal/presentation of new evidence. It costs far more to keep someone on death row than simply to sentence them to jail, as the government (usually) is keen on not denying that basic right which trumps all rights: the right to life.

And since governments (including the USA's) are notorious for killing the wrong person, that causes two problems: A) they killed the wrong person and close the case B) the real criminal is still free and now not being sought.

Any government which claims the right to kill its citizens in the name of any "cause" is no longer a humanist government, and if taken over by religious or political zealots can use that death penalty in the name of religion or politics.

[Autumnlicious]

Against the death penalty -- until we can restore life.

Because a mistake in putting someone to death who is innocent isn't a mistake -- it is a crime.

It's just that the government can't arrest itself for unlawfully killing someone and bloodthirsty morons with financial motivations will always support its right to kill it's own citizens.

I always wondered that if murder et al are so illegal and terrible, then why do we practice it? Looks awfully pot calling the kettle black if you support the death penalty but are against dealing death to others (homicide)...

[Anymouse]

Against the death penalty -- until we can restore life.

Because a mistake in putting someone to death who is innocent isn't a mistake -- it is a crime.

It's just that the government can't arrest itself for unlawfully killing someone and bloodthirsty morons with financial motivations will always support its right to kill it's own citizens.

I always wondered that if murder et al are so illegal and terrible, then why do we practice it? Looks awfully pot calling the kettle black if you support the death penalty but are against dealing death to others (homicide)...

By definition, homicide is unlawful killing. The death penalty is lawful killing by the State, mistaken or not. It's that "mistaken or not" part that bothers me. Wonder how many jurists would impose the death penalty if the penalty for being wrong was they were also executed?

The government could arrest itself (or its members, anyway). They won't.

[Cinjin]

Poll:

Quite the split going on in this one. Usually these polls are heavily one sided. Interesting.