Death Penalty

For It? Against It?

Note** I didnt give the option for 'depends'. Either youre for it or not. If it d'depends' then youre probably for it.

here's how i look at it

if someone close to me was killed, the normal gut reaction would be to brutally kill the murderer. Since that has never happened, I really don't know how I would react.

But I always look at it as killing the person, will not bring your loved one back, and in fact you're doing the person a favor by allowing them to die. Especially since they'll die with a lethal injection and very little pain.

I'd want the person to suffer a slow painful death and rotting in a prison for life is a surefire way to acheive that goal.

In my opinion

I'm against it. What makes a jury who decides someone should die any better that the killer that decided that for their victim. I know it's not as black and white, but I don't see that it's ok to kill someone in one instance and not ok for the person being convicted.

Like Don said, I don't know how I'd feel if my family member was killed. But right now, I'm not for it.

my opinions on the 'eye for an eye' philosphy... if you hit me, i dont have to hit you back. murdering the murderer will not bring the victim back. it doesnt get us anywhere.

ALSO, just fyi.... lethal injection is NOT painless! most people think it is. so did i, til i read indepth about it. it is actually painful (burning) and it soffocates you and then paralyzes you, but you can still see and hear around you.

thast just something i'd like to say.

But as everyone else here mostly agrees on... if someone were to kill one of my family i may feel differently...... only when it becomes personal. you know.

i saw a documantary today on some woman put to death (dont worry, not aileen wuornos!) and the victims mother forgave the killer and didnt want her to get the death penalty..... so tell me why, then, would they still go through with it??? i would think that the reason why they would execute her in the FIRST place would be justive for the family.... anyone see my point?


But thanks everyone who responded... i as curious... i had a convo on this with my mom and was wondering how others felt about it.

FOR IT!!!!!

IMO...it wasn't the jury, the judge or the family who decides who put someone to death...
It was the decision the murderer made when he killed!
If a murderer felt it was ok for someone else...well then it is ok for them!

ETA...and for the brutual, serial, baby killers...TORTURE and keeping them in excruciating pain is better

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Posted by oct.2004bride

FOR IT!!!!!

IMO...it wasn't the jury, the judge or the family who decides who put someone to death...
It was the decision the murderer made when he killed!
If a murderer felt it was ok for someone else...well then it is ok for them!

ETA...and for the brutual, serial, baby killers...TORTURE and keeping them in excruciating pain is better

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I know they don't call ya Wolverine for nothing!

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Posted by Moehick

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Posted by oct.2004bride

FOR IT!!!!!

IMO...it wasn't the jury, the judge or the family who decides who put someone to death...
It was the decision the murderer made when he killed!
If a murderer felt it was ok for someone else...well then it is ok for them!

ETA...and for the brutual, serial, baby killers...TORTURE and keeping them in excruciating pain is better

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I know they don't call ya Wolverine for nothing!

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HELLS YEA
Do you see the shine from my metal claws?

I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree that living a life in jail is probably a worse punishment.

On the other hand, some people are for the death penalty because of the HUGE amount of money it takes to keep a prisoner jailed- why should our tax dollars go to support these people? (I don't know if I agree with this)

One more- what if the person is innocent but 'proven' guilty?

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Posted by Sunny

I have mixed feelings about this.

I agree that living a life in jail is probably a worse punishment.

On the other hand, some people are for the death penalty because of the HUGE amount of money it takes to keep a prisoner jailed- why should our tax dollars go to support these people? (I don't know if I agree with this)

One more- what if the person is innocent but 'proven' guilty?

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I agree also - I do think it depends I don't think it has to be for or against- I think it really needs to be proven without a shadow of a doubt and the severity. I also think the person should really do plenty of time FIRST before they are put to death

I used to believe in the death penalty, until my last year of law school. My entire third year law project was on the death penalty...I wrote an independent research project on the death penalty being racially biased.

It's one thing if the death penalty was applied evenly...but it's not. According to the research (and I wish I had references to back this up now, but I'd have to go looking for the paper), African Americans are more likely to receive the death penalty, especially if that African American kills a White person.

'According to DOJ figures, nearly 80 percent of inmates on federal death row are Black, Hispanic or from another minority group. Minorities account for 74 percent of the cases in which federal prosecutors seek the death penalty.'

'The chance that a person charged with a capital crime will live or die depends enormously on race, social class and perhaps most importantly of all, where the crime was committed. In calling for a moratorium on the death penalty last year, the American Bar Association said, 'Today, administration of the death penalty, far from being fair and consistent, is instead a haphazard maze of unfair practices with no internal consistency.'

'Over half of those on death row are people of color. Black men alone make up over 42% of all death row prisoners, though they account for only 6% of people living in the U.S.

Racial inequity is found not just in the South, where most U.S. executions are taking place. According to a study done by David Baldus and George Woodwort, blacks in Philadelphia are four times more likely to get the death penalty than other defendants who commit similar murders. Philadelphia has put 133 people on death row - more than most southern states. Over 89% of these prisoners are people of color.

Nationwide, cases involving a white victim and a defendant of color are most likely to result in a death sentence. The Baldus study found that six out of ten defendants sentenced to death in Georgia for killing a white person would not have received a death sentence had their victim been black. A white victim case was over four times more likely to result in a death sentence than was a comparable black victim case. In Maryland - the state with one of the highest percentages of African Americans on death row - a death sentence is eight times more likely in a white victim case than a black victim case, according to a 1987 Public Defender's Office study.

The first legal challenge to racial bias in a jury's decision to impose the death penalty was filed with the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1996. Using data collected by the state's Administrative Office of the Courts, defendant Donald Loftin demonstrated that jurors in New Jersey are ten times more likely to sentence a black defendant to death than a white defendant.


Also, the death penalty is mostly applied to the indigent, and not people with $$$.

This is not coming out so clear what I'm writing, I'm so sick right now...when I'm feeling better, I'll rewrite this...but I think you get the gist.

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Posted by lolita4life

FYI: it cost taxpayers $250, 000 to keep an inmate alive (a year){ on death row } that is on deathrow! Even Aileen Wuornos ('monster') sais she'd rather die.... she said :why cost the taxpayers so much money???' and its true...... it costs us more $$$ to keep a person on death row than to keep them in life in prison.

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Yes that's what a professor of mine said as well.