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Where do you guys stand on the death penalty?

Personally, I am more against it then for it.

My problem isn't a moral delima. If a someone takes the life of another, then the least they can do is repay it with their own.

It's not evan about the possibility of wrongfully accusing someone of a crime. With modern technology, I think the possibility of someone being convicted of a crime, sentenced to death, failing every appeal, and still being innocent are very slim.

It isn't even about how we are one of the only developed nations still executing criminals.

My problem is money. Statistically it has been shown that it is cheaper to keep an inmate in jail for life then it is to kill them. With the number of appeals that happen, thousands upon thousands of dollars are wasted preventing someone from being executed.

So, what do the rest of you think? Is the death penatly something that this country needs? Even in the worst circumstances. Timothy McVea for instance. The Oklahoma State bombing was planned and carried out by him. 163 people were killed. I am not saying that he didn't deserve to be executed (on the contrary, I think he deserved much much worse thne that).

However, did he deserve to waste the states money. (If you ask me, I think he deserved to sit in a cell for the rest of his life with his new girlfriend... bubba)

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I'm against it. It's the Code of Hamurabi at work. I'm not saying that we should release them, not at all. But just make sure that they're in a nice, small cell for the rest of their lives being the wife of Bubba. Now that's capital punishment.


How come conservatives say that they are pro-life, and the "The party of the church" when they support the death penalty which the church states is wrong?

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I'm not really chiming in for or against the death penalty, but I will address Ramrod's concern: yes, it does seem ironic that people who would normally be pro-life sometimes support the death penalty. But not all. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, is against both abortion and the death penalty.

However, those pro-lifers who support the death penalty see a huge difference between an innocent unborn child and a criminal proven guilty of heinous crimes: one deserves death, the other deserves life.

But to quote Gandalf, "Many who live deserve death, and many who die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be to hasty to deal out death in judgment."

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I think that despite a persons age (under 18 or not) the only reason that a death penalty is if the person who committed the murder knew that it was wrong, didn't care, and felt no sympathy for anyone affected.

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Can't argue with that.

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I'll try (though it is late).

Why use the death penalty at all? Is it really the most severe punishment that we can dish out, without violating the 8th amendment of course?

I argue that the death penalty is an easy way out for most criminals who deserve it. I would think living in a cell for 20 hours of the day, with minimal human contact is much, much worse. But to make this really work, I think we need to get rid of certain unnecessary rights current prisioners have.

More to come in the morning

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You do have a point there, Stu. But then again, when this form of punishment was invented, it had to do with sending the person who committed the crimes straight to hell. Because our judicial system shouldn't really consider hell as a punishment (because we don't know for sure whether or not it exists.) I guess you're right. Pushishing them by a lifetime in prison is better in almost all cases...

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The problem I have here, Stu, is that a lot of the time, criminals don't end up serving their entire sentence. A lifetime sentence doesn't mean that anymore due to overcrowding in prisons, appeals, etc.

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I think if the death penalty were eliminated, harsher sentences would be imposed on those that previously would have received the death penalty.

A "lifetime without the possibilty of parole" would mean just that.

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i think the death penalty should only be used on rapist and child molesters. but since most of them are killed in prison, the death penalty should be banned.

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Yeah, the average prison life for them is about 1 year top, before they get killed for doing such a heinous thing.

I view it as, if what they did was so wrong, let some of their fellow prison mates take care of things, getting them to their eternal punishment faster.

God is the ultimate judge, not us. Let God exact the eternal punishment. But while they're on Earth, don't let them get off easy with death, let them suffer for what they did by being locked in solitare confinement for 20 hours a day, for the rest of their lives.

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Noone deserves to die. They can be imprisoned, perolled, anything but death and torture

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Sister, now that we're grieving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next

Aight, so what you're saying here is if someone broke into your house, raped your sister\mother\daughter, killed your only son, and chopped off your hands you wouldn't want them to die for what they'd done?

Also, I find it interesting you put parole on your list of punishments.

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I wouldnt like to be watched, have parole meetings and such. Im too lazy, and really, no one DESERVES to BE KILLED. I may WANT them to die, but no one DESERVES to be killed...no matter what i WANT.

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Sister, now that we're grieving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next

I would disagree. Someone who commits a heinous act of premeditated murder does deserve death, as do some people who commit crimes of similar heinous nature. Whether we actually sentence them to death is a matter of civil justice.

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I feel kind of stupid saying this, since no one else has yet, but i believe if someone did something REAL BAD, they deserve the death penalty. (yes even juveniles.) However, I don't think that means that ALL criminals should get the dbomb.

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Why would you think that nobody agrees with you? The only people who were really completely opposed to it were ramrod and No Toppings. Stu and I were semi-opposed to it, and everybody else who posted was for it under strict circumstances.

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oh...they way i interpreted it, it seemed like evryone opposed it...

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The death penalty is far too... both too harsh and too lenient. If you have committed a horrible crime, you should be forced to live in prison for the rest of your life. However, if you are a religious person, the death penalty is worse then spending thirty billion years in prison. You either "get off too easy" (ugh, I don't want to say that), or be locked in eternal misery. Either way, the Death Penalty doesn't work.

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This is the only opinon were I dont agree with other liberals. I'm for it.

Why does a person who has robbed another's life deserve to live? They've done the most vile and disturbing thing imagineable in our culture, and frankly I see them as a danger to society.

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Proudly raised by a cup of coffee

Torture is ok to me . The Death Penalty is wrong. I honestly don't know why
I think that way.

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The question is not whether they deserve to live, it's whether they deserve to die, and whether we, as a society and as individuals, should or should not have the privilege to bring that about.

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If a person "deserves" to die, doesn't that mean they don't deserve to live?

For proponents of the death penalty, I ask you this - Would you still be in favor of the death penalty if all the death sentenced convicts were herded into a field and shot?

For the record, I'm anti death penalty. The act of a nation killing off its own citizens is too heinous in itself.

Actually, I see something like rape as even worse, because with murder at least the victim is dead, and doesn't have to go through any more pain.
I had a family member who was raped, so that's why I feel that rape is worse.
Think of this, we're one of only 5 nations that have capital punishment. Most of the others are third world countries with horrible human rights track records.

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Boy, this will be hard to word...

What happens if murder is done with strangling or drowning? With rape, you have chance that yo can survive it. Having cement shoes and being thrown into a lake...that's harder to get out alive.

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Proudly raised by a cup of coffee

Well, you've turned it around on itself: to paraphrase, the question was "If they don't deserve to live, should they be killed?"

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That's the thing with rape, you can survive it. With many rape victime, they have scars and nightmares from that horrible act. Many rape victims wish that were dead, and some do try to commit suicide.

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I hate to tell you this, but that's just incorrect. The following countries permit the death penalty:
* Afghanistan
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Bahamas
* Bahrain
* Bangladesh
* Barbados
* Belarus
* Belize
* Botswana
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Chad
* China (People's Republic)
* Comoros
* Congo (Democratic Republic)
* Cuba
* Dominica
* Egypt
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Ethiopia
* Gabon
* Ghana
* Guatemala
* Guinea
* Guyana
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Jamaica
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Korea, North
* Korea, South
* Kuwait
* Kyrgyzstan
* Laos
* Lebanon
* Lesotho
* Liberia
* Libya
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Mongolia
* Morocco
* Myanmar
* Nigeria
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Palestinian Authority
* Philippines
* Qatar
* Rwanda
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and the Grenadines
* Saudi Arabia
* Sierra Leone
* Singapore
* Somalia
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Syria
* Taiwan
* Tajikistan
* Tanzania
* Thailand
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Uganda
* United Arab Emirates
* United States of America
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Yemen
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe
(just a few more then 5)
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html

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I've only counted five industrialized nations there, US and Japan. Many of the other countries are ones that we have our eyes on for their horrible human rights track records and terrorism. North Korea, China, Iran, Saudia Arabia? Are those modern, industrialized nations? Or are they ones that Bush is looking to go after.

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I fail to see the point of this question. What difference would it make?

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"You get the Most Annoying Transsexual I've Ever Spoken To award." -The Zephyr Song