not only do i believe in the Death Penalty,i think they need to speed it up.quit making the tax payers pay to keep their sorry @$$es in prison when they know they're going to die anyways!.i hink Child Molesters should be put to death,i think Rapists should be put to death,hell even car thiefs because used to they would hang horse thieves because a horse was a person's transportation,a car is transportation so why not kill car thieves?

Jess I think he was refering to his individual state in the Union.

That may be so Caolina, however my statement was this country abolished the death penalty, and his response, indicated that so does his.

I don't understand the separation of States with these types of laws. Please remember I am not from the US.

Yea I realize that. In the US there are federal, state, and local laws. If something isn't covered by federal law its up to the individual state to decide, after which it's left up to the county, then city or town.

Go back and re-read his post, he's refering to his individual state.

I don't believe in the death penalty because 1. It does not deter crime. 2. It is not evenly applied. When was the last time you saw a rich, famous, white person get it? 3. How can it be justice when it is for sale? 4. Over 130 innocent people have been wrongly executed in the United States, unacceptable. 5. How do you teach someone it is wrong to kill by killing them. 6. I don't know why I numbered this.

Here in the sticks of NC, I only see one way of carrying out the death penalty.

1. child abuser
2. raper
3. dug dealer

They should tie em to a tall oak tree with a short piece of rope, and let em swing til the sun stops shinein!

Amen Criptonic

sup jt, wazz been going on?

In response to the catlady:

1. Show me a study that shows that the death penalty fails to deter crime. Since I don't know of one that supports the idea that it does in fact deter crime and since I'm too lazy to check with Google right now, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Lets say the death penalty doesn't deter crime. There is still the benefit of tax money saved and prison space freed.

2. When was the last time you saw a rich, famous, black person get the death penalty? Does race have ANYTHING to do with this? Maybe rich, famous, white people don't get the death penalty because rich, famous, white (or black, or yellow, or brown) people tend not to commit the same crimes than people in other demographic groups (such as poor nobodies). There are exceptions to the rule however, such as the case of O.J. Simpson. But then again we all know the reason O.J. got off the hook was because he was white.

3. I fail to understand what your digging at here. I'm going to take a hunch and guess its a reference to rich, famous, white people buying their way out (which would just kind-of tie into point 2). The fact that the rich have more pull than others in this society sucks, but that’s a separate issue than the death penalty. Rich people also tend to avoid jail time. Does this mean we should abolish prisons (I'm beginning to sound like a broken record)? Maybe you'll like the 'free check and a cake' idea I proposed earlier.

4. Again this sucks, but when you look at the data there were 16,137 known murders (as distinguished from manslaughter) in 2004 (I don't know if the number has gone up or down, but it's a good reference point). Not all of these people can be assumed to be innocents (a good many were probably involved in gang activity, drug deals, etc.), but there were 16,137 murders none the less. That means there were at least 16,137 murderers. That's just one year. 130 innocents(over how long?)lost kind-of pales in comparison. Yea it's a bad situation and needs to be remedied, but, like even application of justice, it's a problem in and of itself and only peripheral to the question at hand.

5. We (I speak for myself only, but the pluralization sounds better)aren't out to teach them anything, we are out to eliminate unwanted burdens of the state. It would be pointless to try and teach them anything as they would soon be leaving this world. However it does serve as a good lesson to others that heinous crimes (not only murder, which I would distinguish as being the criminal killing of innocents, but other crimes as well) will be rewarded with death. The lesson is that individuals do not have a right to kill one another for their own personal reasons (excluding the natural right of self-defense of course), but banded together as a society they do have the right to exterminate those which present themselves as a threat to said society or who have presented themselves as a threat to society.

6. You tell me.

I totally agree with oldsage, jt, carolina and cryptonic. there is no place in society for scummy rapists, murderers, pedophiles and drug dealers! I blame the liberal mentality in this country for it even getting as far as it has, we have kid toucher's that have numerous convictions that are turned loose because liberal judges feel punishment doesn't work so they want to send them to therapy. I say send them to old sparky!

I think once the death worthy offense has been proven to have been committed by the accused, (DNA, witnesses,court proceedings, etc.), then move 'em along to the lethal injection at full speed. The way the death penalty is carried out, (court appeals leading to final goodbyes with loved ones, last meal of choice, religious support, etc.)is so incredibly humane in comparison to the crimes perpetrated by these bas*ards.

Take Polly Klas for example; taken from her own bedroom in the middle of the night, assaulted, strangled with her own clothing and buried in an isolated area by repeat offender Richard Allen Davis. She was 12. Imagine her final hours. Doesn't seem fair.

Ted Bundy bludgeoning, stabbing, strangling his victims to death before sexually assaulting their corpses. He seemed to be the All American Collegiate.

John Wayne Gacy....a professional clown, member of the several civic organizations, contractor, married man. He enticed young boys to his home with promises of employment, then bound them, raped and killed them and buried them next to each other in his crawlspace.

BTK, a public employee, deacon of his church, victimized his neighbors, patrons on his route, etc. and bragged to the press about it. He killed four out of six members of a family in his reported first crime.

Leonard Lake took his own life via cyanide capsule before he could be prosecuted for his atrocities, but his cohort, Charles Ng still appeals his death sentence and shows zero remorse for the crimes he and Lake committed. Some of their crimes included tossing live infants on bonfires, drawing cartoon caricatures of the unimaginable murders, killed men, raped, tortured, enslaved and killed numerous women, such as the infants mothers', burned the bodies to bits, videotaped it all and never regretted it.

These are a very small drop in the bucket in the vast array of hideous crimes committed against humanity. I don't believe anyone who has the ability to take pleasur in the suffering and death of others has any rights to appeal a death sentence. I feel it should be automatic. They should re-implement the "eye-for-an-eye" rule. Committ a rape, strangulation, stabbing, torture, etc. and expect the same sequence of events to befall the guilty prior to their deaths. They are entitled to so much more than they ever, ever afforded their innocent victims.
Killing is wrong when you refer to these types of circumstances. Carrying out the death penalty is justice, and innocent voices cry for justice. Says so in the bible.

I have gone back and forth on this issue for a number of years. Earlier in my life I was solidly pro capital punishment (CP) but as I've gotten a bit older I've questioned the morality of such a position. It's easy to see where and why people feel as though people like Bundy, Manson, and Ridgeway deserve to die for their horrible crimes. That two of the three mentioned above will never die (and others, who have killed far less, will) is but one of the issues surrounding CP.

But my real issue has more to do with our justice system than anything else. We ask a jury of our peers to find "beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty) guilt in any criminal case. From there, CP might or might not be sought by the D.A.. But here is my issue. Beyond a reasonable doubt is not the same as absolutely positive. That stated, CP is an absolute sentence. That's my issue. We are asking for sub-absolute proof in order to impose and absolute punishment. Once that injection is ordered and the clock rolls around to 12:01 AM, there is no turing back. We cannot take back a mistake nor can we take back the horror that such a mistake would cause; compounding an already terrible ordeal.

But I realize the weakness in my argument (as I'm sure many of you have) which, simply stated is: "But Bundy admitted to his crimes, isn't that absolute proof?" Sure, and in Ted's case, he got absolute judgement. He was put to death in 1989 afer running out of appeals.

So, I suppose for an absolute punishment I need to see absolute proof. Anything less is tough to stomach when we are discussing the taking of a human life. Please don't confuse my view with being soft on societal justice--I'm not. I deplore attempts to treat prisons as social rehab experiements and I wouldn't shed a tear of Manson were to say, "slip" and run in to the sharp end of a sharp object of some sort. But the issue is whether or not CP, as an societal tool to punish, is effective. I don't know the answer to that question but I do know that people far smarter than me have debated it for many, many years.

That is not likely to change anytime soon, but in the meantime, I hope that we'll use it only when everyone involved feels that there is simply no chance (none) that there is any doubt as to the guilt of the person we are doing to rid from the planet.

-Drew

i may be old fashioned and southern, but i fully support the death penelty. if its proven beyond a shadow of a doubt,that you did something completely terrible and unforgivable, you should pay with your life. yeah, there are mistakes, thats with any system, but some people deserve to die. that fukker that made the video of molesting that lil 3 year old, and i am a father of a 4 year old lil girl, i belive they should turn him loose in the general population and let the people in there deal with him, he deserves to die.

I recall the last death penalty discussion and was a participant .
Im not even going to argue my case here but I DO NOT SUPPORT THE DEATH PENALTY!

some people dont support the death penelty,, and i respect their thoughts, thats what makes us free. but i belive in and eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. i will not stand for someone hurting someone badly and not getting what he/she deserves. the woman in south carolina that killed her kids by drowning them in her car and saying how they were kidnapped, they should have drug her out and shot her ass. if you hurt a child,, you forfiet your life in my eyes. in prison, where it is truly kill or be killed,, the first ones that get hurt are the child molester and child preditors. and i dont see a damn thing wrong with that.

Amen, Thumper!! It puts things in a whole new perspective when you are a parent. Especially when we would give our lives for our children, trade places with them to prevent their pain, give them everything we have.........these freaks of society have no understanding and appreciation for parent/child love. They are self-serving and deranged. They should always be put to death for crimes against children.

last month in raleigh we had 4,,,, 4 kids murdered by parents or their significant others. i hope everyone one of em dies slow and horribly. speically one,, they found the child missing something, i aint sayin what, but it was terrible. and her f'ing father did it to her!!!!!!!!!! i really hope he dies slow

For the most part I believe in a 'tooth for a tooth' X5. You can't kill somebody 5 times, so, that's out of the question right there. Besides for the fact that it's the easy way out. What's the deterrent to a suicidal person who wants to kill 500 people? What's the deterrent for alot of people to put them in jail for things in the first place? Sitting on thier butts all day in the A/C, watching cable TV and getting 3 meals a day. They're living better than alot of hard working people in this country who've never as much gotten a parking ticket their whole life! I have a few 'friends' who've been in and out of jail their whole adult lives for things like theft, burglary, GTA and so on and don't think much of it. Either they live it up in the county hotel or sit home and collect welfare. It's all the same to them. Instead of tax payers paying out their a$$s to house these people, why don't we put them to work? It's about time some of them learn what a honest days work actually is! Let how hard they have to work, how long and what they do depend onwhat it is they did to put them there in the first place. As an added bonus let thier 'extra punishment' fit thier crime. If they steal; don't let them have a radio, books or let them watch the tv or whatever. If they like fighting; let it known to the pop why they're there and have the guards 'turn their heads a bit'. If they rape, well, you know where I'm going with this. Inhumane; probably. Unfair; who's to say. But, is it fair to your little sister who got raped just to see the guy taking it easy in the big house? It's already known that there are 'unwritten codes of conduct' among inmates and certain deeds are 'dealt with accordingly' among themselves, so, what's the difference if it was made more official?

Just chop their damn heads off!
Gee sorry if we were wrong! maybe next time!!
Quit wasting all the $$$ keeping all these creapy azz dudes sitting on death row FOR YEARS & YEARS!!! pppffffttt!!!
or just turn them out on the yard in general population...
Then these COs out here in the system won't be getting in trouble for their gladitor fighting ring they had going on!!

I think they should also have a lottery to allow someone flip the switch each time, to let the A-hole "Ride the Lightning" straight to hell....