Early last year, governor Pat Quinn of the state of Illinois declared that it would be getting rid of the death penalty within its borders. It has become one of another sixteen states who have dropped the policy of executing inmates. How do you feel about this? Do you think that the death penalty should be abolished? Are there only certain cases where it is right to be used (for serial killers such as Jeffery Dahmer, and such)? What about people under the age of 18, and the mentally disabled? By United States federal law, we are not allowed to execute mentally handicapped people and juveniles under the legal adult age, no matter what crimes they have committed. Do you believe that law should be repealed? Why or why not?
Lauren Smith
15 comments:
Yes the death penalty should be abolished. Murder is murder no matter who it is, and why it was done. Murder cannot be justified in my eyes.Not even a serial killer should be given the death penalty as a punishment. A true punishment for a serial killer would be for that man to sit, and rot in jail for the remainder of his days, with not contact with society ever again. The death penalty is a escape gate. Yes we do have our exception cases. But if you really want someone pay for what they have done; think about it like this...Would you rather the serial killer have a short painless death... or a long painful lingering death inside a jail cell for the rest of there lives?
People should not be sentenced for a death penalty. The law has the right to punish others for their crimes, but it has no right to take away someone’s life. Death penalty is a very controversial topic; it has no right answer to it. Like many other topics, death penalty has its own pros and cons. But I believe that there shouldn’t be death penalty. Economically speaking, “the cost of the death penalty amounts to a net expense to the state and the taxpayers. Or to put it differently, the death penalty is clearly more expensive than a system handling similar cases with a lesser punishment.” It would be less expensive to give someone life sentence than death penalty.
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000
-Nilay
I think the death penalty is just an easy way for the justice system to get rid of a problem. I believe that the best way to handle an inmate or criminal that has committed such an offensive crime such as murder or rape should be counseled on what that person has done. If a person were to have killed someone they should be put into therapy and talk about why they did what they did. The therapist should be able to guide the person into the right way of life by helping them control their emotions. The therapist should help the criminal so that whenever the person has a strong emotion, they would be able to handle it in a normal non-violent way. As for criminals that are underage or mentally disabled, I would say it would just have to depend. These people would definitely need more care because they are more clueless than the other criminals but these people should still not be given up on. They are still people like you and me, that have emotions about certain topics and ideas. They just get a little out of hand when these emotions are too much for them because they don't know how to handle themselves. I think getting rid of the death penalty is great but counseling services and therapy should be greatly increased to help out anyone who would be in need of it.
John
I think the death penalty should be applied in very specific circumstances. There needs to be no question that the person cannot be returned to society and that they committed the crime. It is a sad fact that some innocent people are executed but a jury is made of human beings who make mistakes. If they are not put to death where will they be housed? Currently US prisons are badly overcrowded and the conditions despicable due to lack of funding.
I don't believe that keeping them alive would be cheaper because facilities would have to be built to house them, staff hired, upkeep of the facility, and inmate care. The injection is only a few hundred dollars. The cost would be huge epically if the person was younger. Rebecca S
I'm going to agree with Rebecca on this topic. Yes, the death penalty needs to be executed with serious precaution as to who it is sentenced to and why they are being sentenced with it. Not that everything is about money to me or everyone else, but many people do care about where their money goes. More of their money would be spent trying to keep the person alive who's killed someone or many people as opposed to a small percentage coming out of their pay for the painless shot used for the death penalty. In my eyes, if they are going to abolish the death penalty, they need to replace it with some kind of incredible torture as discipline for the acts of murder.
-Cherie
I think that the death penalty should be allowed when overwhelming evidence exist and the crimes are heinous. To all the people who want these murders and rapist to rot away in a cell for the rest of their life, please consider the costs. Operating prisons, hiring guards, feeding these people, it all cost money. It costs about 30,000 dollars a year to keep someone in prison, I could give a shit less about paying taxes toward keeping people locked up who have given up their right to life by taking others.
Although this is a completely different subject how is it justifiable to have no death penalty for criminals, but innocent babies can be aborted and killed without the bat of an eye, which is completely legal.
Schnitzel
Unpopular opinion time - I am very pro death penalty and I always have been. But I have very specific opinions about when it should be used and when it shouldn't be. In cases of mass murder, murder with no incentive exept you wanting to kill someone, rape (NOT statutory rape), torture, and other extreme things like that I am definitely all for them dying. Exceptions can be made if deemed necessary (under 18, mental illness, etc) but for the most part I believe if you take someone's life, your life should be taken in return. I understand people's viewpoint of wanting them to suffer the life in a jail cell, and that does sound like a good idea, but I hate that I am the one paying for it. I don't want to spend my hard earned money on keeping murderers and rapists alive. I would rather them just die and not be a threat to society anymore. Sounds cruel but they would have to do some pretty F-ed up things for me to have this opinion on them anyway.
Andi
This is a very interesting topic, and one that stirs up many debates. Personally, I think the death penalty should be kept. The world would be a better place since there would be less bad people. Sentencing someone for life is stupid, basically you are giving them food and shelter for free. If they committed heinous crime that makes others feel that they deserve death, then it should be so. In the Holy Bible, communities would stone criminals to death. If there was enough evidence to prove that someone was the criminal of great atrocities, then they should be punished with death. In our time, we kill people more humanely; it’s not as if we stone or electrocute the criminals. I am not sure about the punishment for the mentally disabled or children. I really do not know what to do if a child kills 20 people. Well, if the child knows how to kill then they should be treated as an adult since it means they are able to understand. But if a mentally retarded person set people’s houses on fire and ends up killing them, then they definitely deserve the death penalty.
-Charlie
The death penalty is is never the right solution to a problem, even for murderers. Sure, they are bad people, but if you murder someone else for murdering, who's the better person? Every state should abolish this sentence, it's a cruel punishment. They're already in jail and now you want to kill them just for the hell of it? No matter what the person did, death is not the answer. I know it sounds stupid because we're locking them away from life, so what's the point of keeping them alive, but they should be kept alive to live with what they did, not die for it.
Katherine Stack
I honestly do not know much on this topic, but I would have to say that I do not agree with this penalty. Life in prison would be a better option than this. Murder is murder and that doesn't change because of a silly law. The death penalty should definitely be abolished.
-Samantha
I do not believe in the death penalty nor will I support it. They punish a person for killing someone and then put them to death, makes no sense. Who gives them the right to give a person a death sentence? Give them life in prison to suffer for the wrong that they did not give them the easy way out.
Natoka
When I initially read this, I didn’t have a strong opinion either way. I guess I really hadn’t thought much about it and was neither a firm supporter of the death sentence nor truly against it. But honestly, the bottom line is this - who are we to choose who is worthy of living or dying? How can this decision be made fairly? Opposing the death penalty does not mean we do not care for victims and survivors of violent crimes, nor does it mean that there are not horrible people out there who do awfuI things. I understand that there are many people that cannot be reformed to the degree fit for society, but I see the death sentence as an extreme resort and as a cop out way of dealing with criminals. Consider the fact that there is always a chance of falsely accusing an innocent person and sending them to their death, while the true criminal gets away with their crime. The loss of this one innocent life is not acceptable. Yes, our current prison system is overcrowded and in need of reform. This should be addressed in other ways and is no excuse for taking a human life. So, from what I have said here, I also do not support the idea of lowering the age limit for death sentences or executing the mentally handicapped.
-Sam
the death penalty should be abolished for the simply fact you cannot justify murder whether it was by the hands of a gun, knife or legal injection....etc. all these are the same. the death penalty should be something else that will make them remember that its not humanly correct to kill another person, such as extreme labor everyday of their life, or a constant torture session these thing are just a thought. i feel as i they are getting an easy way out and they shouldn't be able to get that luxury.
-Christopher Hodges
I am kind of indifferent about the death penalty. I see its benefits and I see its weaknesses. I like the death penalty because I don’t like that our innocent tax dollars go towards providing food, shelter, and other necessities to inmates who have committed disastrous crimes that have left lifelong impacts on someone’s family. To me, that doesn’t seem fair that these people get to live a free and easy life. They might have to think about what they did for the rest of their lives if the death penalty weren’t available, but sometimes that isn’t a punishment for some inmates. I think our tax dollars should be spent on better things, like making better nursing homes for the elderly because it’s just not fair that they have to pay thousands of dollars to die, when guilty prisoners get to live for free. On the other hand, I don’t like the death penalty because I don’t think anybody should able to play God except God. With that being said, it is hard to answer any of your questions. Of course it wouldn’t be right to send somebody to the death penalty if he committed a crime only because he had a mental disability—that wouldn’t be fair. In that situation, he or she should be sent to a mental institution. Juveniles shouldn’t be sentenced to a death penalty since they are children, but that shouldn’t stop the law from sentencing them to a lifetime in prison depending on the crime they commit. This is a really tricky topic because it has to do with the death of other people, and I don’t feel like I should ever have control over that, nor should anyone else.
Chelsey
I'm not overly-informed on the subject, but I do not see a point in letting serial killers or rapists continue on; they're just too dangerous, and if the death penalty is the only way to ensure that they never get to commit more of the acts that they've proven themselves capable of, then so be it.
Addison
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