i'm for it but i do agree that life in prison only if kept in confinement 23 hours a day would be more suffering than death

I think we should just go back to public stonings or hangings.

that would be a good place to take a date

Exactly!

Population control; China, you're doing it right.

well i believe the punishment should fit the crime...eye for an eye..however i wld never be the one preforming the execution. my conscience couldn't deal with that...

I am against it..The bible says "thou shall not kill". I agree, we cannot take life, since we never created it. And I still think we should put them in prison forever and make them WORK the whole time for free. No benefits, no education, No smokes nothing. Then we shall see who wants to be a criminal ..LOL.

You know, if we killed them all...no one would want to be a criminal then either...

Hummm problem is no one seems to understand that

i wld like to suggest that we castrate all child molesters and rapist.

I do believe in it in extreme cases as long as I am sure that they had good legal representation

Thanks to everyone who shared any viewpoint on this thread.

I appreciate it.

aww is it over...

I was gonna say death penalty only deters the ones who are executedd, we have relatively higher rates of crime in america than any western country without the death penalty. The system is too flawed to ever know for sure,, even with DNA and I am opposed to the risk of killing someone who hasnt committed the crime as much as I am for determining that someone's punishment should be death. I dont imagine life in prison is a picnic,,that is sufficient enough for me.

BTW,, I AM also against abortion

I always wonder how many Christians, who choose to be vengeful by wanting to kill others when their god tells them it is not their right or job, realize they go against their religion to desire and promote the death penalty.

msharmony,

The debate over this issue could go on and on no doubt. I finished my paper earlier this morning and it's been turned in. I'm still doing research however because there's so much information out there on this subject.

I do appreciate your feedback a great deal -

Honestly, yours and PacificStar48's words were a few I re-read quite a few times. You both mentioned how you were victims/survivors of violent crimes, so it makes me appreciate how you both feel regarding this subject moreso...

I am in college to further my education, but it's so true that we can learn so much from each other as well.

To enjoy watching someone suffer and or die...wouldn't that make us as bad as the murderer?
Or would it be different because "the murderer started it?"

if it has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt yes and in a realizable time

I am only for the death penalty if someone is pointing a gun at you or waging a war against your country...for instance, if terrorists have hijacked a plane about to kill hundreds of people, shoot it down, ask questions later.

if someone is obviously a complete murdering psycho, unless you are confident that such a person can be adequately held in prison, then I wouldn't complain about them being put to death though I would never pull the trigger myself, of course the problem is that sometimes people get wrongly accused and put to death for crimes they didn't commit which is why i am generally against it, and thing is, some people are actually capable of rehabilitation, here in Australia there is no death penalty, but the problem is what happens here too often is that rapists and killers after 20 years in prison go around committing the same crimes all over again and get thrown back in jail, which shows that something isn't working.

it's a difficult one, because you don't want to be the sort of person that kills for the sake of retribution or to make some political message, to me jail in itself is enough of a deterrent for me to not even consider stealing something, even if I am on the brink of starvation, though in actual fact what happens these days, at least in my country is that people get a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again for most crimes, with the exception of rape, and to a lesser degree, murder.

To me, a much simpler solution would be to use Christmas Island (that's our concentration camp where we throw all the illegal refugees seeking asylum in our country) to chuck all our criminals and let the "illegal" refugees onto our shores, as long as they aren't terrorists with bombs.

Umm, I don't know, I don't agree with the taking of any other life form, I will not even kill a bug these days, unless it's absolutely necessary, but that's only because animals cannot be guilty for any "crime" as a shark eating a human being, isn't doing it out of hatred for humanity, it's just following its instincts, then again, the ocean is shark territory...I know this sounds harsh, but I find there to be much more reasons to put a human to death then an animal, that's because a human has free will, the ability to know what they are doing is "wrong", then again if they truly thought that what they were doing was "wrong" why would they do it?

In a way, one could argue, that capital punishment is not really dealing with the overall problem as to why there is crime in our societies in the first place, it's more a symptom to the problem really, I am not saying that it's right, but many people turn to crime due to limited economic opportunities, being put at a severe disadvantage in a capitalist world, not that that's any excuse as I've gone through phases of life of extreme disadvantage as well, took forever to find a decent job and all that, but what I am saying is if governments put more effort into providing housing, food and shelter for all, rather then scapegoating people that aren't working as "dole bludgers" then maybe, just maybe, some crime would go down, but I can't guarantee that as it's never been tried, whether or not such a move will be good for the economy I don't know.

The problem is that many criminals are people with psychological disability or victims of extremely negative sociological factors, such as being born into third generation welfare dependent families, why that's not an excuse for any crime and yes they should definitely go to jail, the point is, if you've got a psychological disability well you're really no different to a shark in the ocean or a wild dog, really, and I generally have respect for all animal life, like if a dingo attacks me, well it's just doing what it knows. As for sociological disadvantage, well the governments need to focus on creating jobs in more disadvantaged areas, where people can go to apply for work, though in Australia you can get unemployment benefits indefinitely so long as you keep looking for work, so there's really not that much excuse for crime here, then again, many people are in abusive families themselves and turn to crime to try and get out of that situation, such as trying to rob a bank...

THE SHORT POINT IS, that I think the issue is FAR too complex, and while there are rare cases in which I would feel morally justified in ending another humans life, it would definitely be my preference to NOT use lethal force on another human being unless it was ABSOLUTELY necessary (like if they had a bomb that they were about to blow, then shoot them dead before they get the chance and place their heads on a pike on what we do to terrorists for all i care)...

Since many child molesters and rapeists (by instruments) are women or are accompliced by women how do you propose to punish them?

Rape and child molestation is a crime of violence and dominace and hatred of children, their parents, or society not exclusively just sexual gratification. To abuse or mutilate this perv is to sometimes to give them exactly what they want.