Death Penalty-Change your mind yet?

justamom · #1 08-09-2002, 12:03 PM

There was a pretty good discussion about this a while back under Damasa, You Started It.

Unless you have been totally out of touch with current events, you are aware of the number of kidnapping/murders of little children, the serial killer in Baton Rouge and other less reported accounts of missing teens and children. In several of the cases these perps had prior records.

I'm just wondering if anyone has changed their mind on this subject. I know I believe more than ever these animals should be DELEATED from this world. Besides, on Tom's thread ???????
he said things need to be stirred up a bit. Maybe this is a good place to start.

AOX81 · #2 08-09-2002, 12:04 PM

All I can say is Eye for an Eye and you get what you deserve!!

valkyrie · #3 08-09-2002, 12:13 PM

I have not and will not ever change my mind on the death penalty. I have been opposed to it for as long as I have been able to form my own opinion, and I always will be.

Optimist Prime · #4 08-09-2002, 12:15 PM

I used to be against completly. Now only for rapists and wife beaters. I'm defintaly against castration, electric chair and other state sponserd murder. Thats what the death penalty is. If you suport it for anybody, then you are murderer, or at least a passive acomplise. If you don't like thinking that about yourself then don't suport it. And also, there are LESS kindnappings/crimes against children. Thats why they are on the news, they are rarer and therefore more worthy of press space.

Kevlar281 · #5 08-09-2002, 12:26 PM

I still fully support the death penalty.

madmax · #6 08-09-2002, 12:36 PM

I am for it.

shadokat · #7 08-09-2002, 12:37 PM

I'm sorry, but if you deliberately kill someone and had that intent before it happened, then you should face the same fate.

Here in Philadelphia, we've had two little girls get kidnapped lately. One was the girl who chewed through the duct tape and escaped. The other one was killed by her stepmother's brother. Fry that bastard DAMMIT! Also, a young woman was missing for like a week, and the police suspected the woman's boyfriend...finally, after a whole bunch of bullshit, he takes them to her dead body. Hang him HIGH!! Finally, some sicko slid through the bars on a first floor apartment window, raped the two girls inside, then had some breakfast, watched some TV, made some phone calls and stole their mac cards. Then, the asshole goes and tries to use the mac card. When they find this guy, please remove his penis!

psusensei · #8 08-09-2002, 12:42 PM

I believe in it for certain cases, but I wouldn't say it is the end all punishment for criminals. For rapists, serial killers, yes...but in NoVa there is a 23 year old who got the death penalty for hiring someone to kill a rival who he owed $$ to. He is a criminal, an asshole drug dealer yes...but he also has many siblings, one as young as 7. How do you tell his youngest sister that her brother has to be killed?

lifesaver · #9 08-09-2002, 01:15 PM

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" -Ghandi (I think)

Since I am into ambuigity, I am FOR the death penalty. Soem animals arent fit for our society. Short of sending them to a colony on the moon, the most vile offenders need to be dealt with according to societys standards. As long as we live in a representative democracy, and the majority of the representatives we elect still believe in it, then I support it.

As a poli sci major with a minor in clutural anthropology, I see the uS eventually eliminating it, as a society growes older, it tends to liberalize, and that is one of the things that tends to go....

AOIIBrandi · #10 08-09-2002, 01:21 PM

I am for the Death Penalty. There are just some people that do things so heinous that they should be put to death. I also believe that it doesn't really help to let them sit on death row for 20-30 years first.

KappaStargirl · #11 08-09-2002, 01:34 PM

I am for the death penalty...

ASSUMING THEY HAVE THE PERSON WHO ACTUALLY COMMITTED THE CRIME IMPRISONED.

Being from Illinois and a reader of the Chicago Tribune, this has been a concern of mine for years. More and more men accused of capital crimes are being set free because DNA evidence is showing that they are innocent. If you committed the crime, then you should pay for it, but it frightens me to think of the number of people who were innocent yet put to death. Illinois and Florida I believe are the worst offenders in this category, they have released the highest numbers of innocent men from prison.

James · #12 08-09-2002, 01:43 PM

I grew up an only child with a much older parent . . . (for those of you that have an inkling about developmental theory that will mean something to you lol).

So I grew up pretty conservative. The conservative viewpoint (socially) tends to view the world in black and white . . .

As I got older I began to discern that there is a shit-load of gray out there.

Most people just get more conservative. Some people start looking around more . . .

Anyway:

The ethical issue.

The government should probably not be in the business of killing its own citizens. There lies a slippery sloap. What else can they kill for? We already see our rights slipping away over the terrorist issue.

A more personal note: I understand the passion of personal injury... so I have a lot of sympathy for the vigilante. But that doesn't mean that State-Sponsored killing of American Citizens is a good idea.

Second: Why is an argument against children so much more terrible or such a rallying cry? Isn't it equally horrible if a house-wife is sodomized and killed? I think so . . or is only children being killed that y'all worry about?

SigmaChiCard · #13 08-09-2002, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lifesaver
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" -Ghandi (I think)

Since I am into ambuigity, I am FOR the death penalty. Soem animals arent fit for our society. Short of sending them to a colony on the moon, the most vile offenders need to be dealt with according to societys standards. As long as we live in a representative democracy, and the majority of the representatives we elect still believe in it, then I support it.

As a poli sci major with a minor in clutural anthropology, I see the uS eventually eliminating it, as a society growes older, it tends to liberalize, and that is one of the things that tends to go....

I know Martin Luther King Jr. said that as well, but perhaps he was referencing Ghandi at the time too.

James · #14 08-09-2002, 01:47 PM

Also, what KappaStargirl said is very correct . . . they just released a man after 20 years in jail for rape . . . because the DNA evidence said it wasn't him!!!

How do you give a man back 20 years? Damn, I could barely handle being grounded for a weekend.

Quote:

Originally posted by KappaStargirl
I am for the death penalty...

ASSUMING THEY HAVE THE PERSON WHO ACTUALLY COMMITTED THE CRIME IMPRISONED.

Being from Illinois and a reader of the Chicago Tribune, this has been a concern of mine for years. More and more men accused of capital crimes are being set free because DNA evidence is showing that they are innocent. If you committed the crime, then you should pay for it, but it frightens me to think of the number of people who were innocent yet put to death. Illinois and Florida I believe are the worst offenders in this category, they have released the highest numbers of innocent men from prison.

librasoul22 · #15 08-09-2002, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by valkyrie
I have not and will not ever change my mind on the death penalty. I have been opposed to it for as long as I have been able to form my own opinion, and I always will be.

Same here. Why outlaw murder then turn around and do it yourself?

Also, I think the justice system is so corrupt, half the time (that is not to say EVERY time), they probably have the wrong person anyway.

I don't like this argument too much, because being that I oppose the death penalty, most people ask me, "well what should we do then, if not execute them?" To that, I have no answer because prisons cost the tax payer TOO mch as it is. This is the only thing I don't like about being a crim major, the corrections aspect looks very grim.