Death penalty

[Movingo]

I don't want to be roasted. I do believe in it. For personal reasons it's definitely valid in my opinion.
I believe if you're so heinous in your behaviour to warrant that sentence then yes.
I'm all for it.
I'm aware it's an unpopular opinion. So I'm really only talking about people who confessed or where there was truly evidence they were guilty.
I'm asking as my mum is dead set against it. No matter what.
Whereas, my dad said he'd be the executioner if he believed their guilt for sex crimes etc.
So. Im just curious really.
I hope my thread is not deleted.... I know lots of people like to complain.

It might not be 8 am where op is and anyway there's no time like the present to talk about things which are important to you.

op I am in favour as well

Do you really want a list of people who ‘confessed’ under duress and where later on, often after they’d spent many years in prison, someone else was found to have committed the crime? Or where the ‘evidence’ was found unsafe?

Find a list of miscarriages of justice, OP, and be glad they wren’t all posthumous.

What exactly are you asking?

Two wrongs don't make a right

I'd rather the justice system actually handed down sentences that fit the crime and that life meant life. Some innocent people plead guilty.

This is where I am unsure. I'm really only talking about cases where there is no question of doubt.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Do you agree with it? If you have unequivocal evidence?

Having lived in Texas, absolutely No, I do not support the death penalty.

It is too easy to get it wrong.
There are , rightly, many hurdles and appeals to go through. But the outcome is a person, usually a man, often black, with a background of deprivation, sitting on death row for years, while we prevaricate over his fate. That is torture, and we should be above that.

Lock them up - absolutely. But by implementing the death penalty we are saying there is no hope of rehabilitation. And it’s usually a gut, knee-jerk response from those who support it, but have no experience of the actuality of carrying it through.

I'm a bit on the fence about the death penalty. Serial killers and child murderers I think so.
Others, whole life sentence.
Someone who deliberately takes a life should never see the light of day

The state should not hold the power to kill its citizens. End of story.

No I'm opposed to it, no matter what the crime.

Right. That's the hesitation. If we were talking about America then I'd probably have a different view as I know they love to throw the death penalty about.
I'm talking about other countries though.

I'm really only talking about cases where there is no question of doubt

Those cases later found to be unsafe would have been in your 'no question of doubt' category at the point of execution....

What is your reason for being pro? It costs so much more than life in prison, and has devastating consequences for when it's gotten wrong. Even 1 innocent person sent to death is too many surely?

There are some people who you think the world would be better off without...the Fred/Rosemary West's and the Myra hindley/Ian Brady's.
It's a philosophical question whether your conscience would be burdened if you were responsible for their deaths, most people would be far removed from the decision and the act itself.

No, never. Not only is there the doubt situation - you have but to look up the case of Stefan Kiszko to see how meaningful 'no doubt' is and how badly that could go wrong - there is also the fact that we have to be better than the people who do heinous things.

If you look in the US it is absolutely not a deterrent. In fact states with the death penalty have a higher crime rate.

A comedian suggested that if we did have a referendum on it and it won, then this should happen: everytime there was a miscarriage of justice ( and we've had several) and someone was murdered by the state (because that's what it would be), then if you've voted for it you name is entered into a lottery. Then whoever wins that lottery also loses their life - to balance out the miscarriage of justice. An eye for an eye.

The death penalty is a symbol of an unevolved population.

On the one hand I agree because why should the tax payer fund prison for someone that commits such a heinous crime for example child rapists/murderers.

The money could be better spent on good law abiding citizens, however….. the death penalty is the easy way out really and they don’t have to endure a life long incarceration knowing they’ll never get out.

It’s purely for that reason that I’m not sure, it’s not because I think it’s morally wrong. If you look at some of the perpetrators of these crimes, they often kill themselves as a get out so why give them the easy way as an option….

This is it for me, along with the other points mentioned above. I think today, on a day where reform came close to taking many seats is a good day to discuss these issues. Say, a party that were racist, sexist or homophobic came into power. They bring in awful laws to suppress people. Should they be allowed to execute people breaking these laws? That's what the death penalty opens the gates to.

I don’t agree with it.

A civilised society does not kill its citizens.

Would you be prepared to be the executioner @Movingo ?

I'm not for it, not because of any moral issues, but for me a life sentence is a more relevant punishment.

There's a reason Ian Brady wanted to kill himself, because he was suffering, had he died, it would have been over and easier.

If I was on a jury and knew the outcome would be death, I think I wouid find it much harder even if everything pointed to guilt, to find someone guilty, there's no coming back from that decision if new evidence comes up.

That said, the advances in forensics , DNA etc have taken away a huge amount of the doubt element, and possibly for child killers like the Moors Murderers it would have hugely helped their victims families feel they had justice.

So reading what I've just typed I suppose I'm on the fence!