>>>>>>>>>>>>http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=13482359
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Yes I'm sure deranged murderers often ponder the lack or not of capital punishment before they commit their crimes.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>The US is executing plenty of people.Is that helping cure crime ?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>I have never heard/read that a guy who was executed committed another crime. And I have read plenty of cases where a person who was spared the capital punishment went on to commit another awful crime. It is like what our "favorite" president say "if we have not taken the measure we have taken, the situation would be much worse."
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>why don't you just execute everyone. that should tidy up your crime stats
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Why do you resort to ridiculous statement when you don't have a logical argument?
>>>
>>>What's logical is that it's proven that capital punishment doesn't reduce crime and furthermore if you do some research you'll find that when states implemented capital punishment their murder rates went UP not down.
>>
>>I wasn't arguing either way (see below). However if you are implying that implementing capital puniishment caused a rising murder rate, I'm not sure that is born out by either data or logic.
>
>I wasn't implying that implementing capital puniishment caused an increase in murder rate - I was saying that having capital punishment doesn't deter someone from committing a murder...so thus saying executions deter crime is wrong.
>
>>In any case, my argument for capital punishment has nothing to do with reducing crime, only in reducing the number of living murderers. Of course it should never be an option when there is any possibility of innocence however there are definitely cases where the evidence is indisputable, the crime is outrageous and the argument to expend public resources to maintain the life of such a person makes no sense to me.
>
>I agree that it would reduce the number of living CONVICTED murderers.
>Saying "it should never be an option when there is any possibility of innocence" - well I was under the impression that's the way it's supposed to be now - and as you can tell it doesn't work - just ask the 139 innocent guys that have been released from death row with the help of the Innocence Project.
>Furthermore when it comes to money - do some research and calculate the costs of keeping someone in prison for life vs the cost of executing the prisoner and you'll find you could keep him locked up for several hundred years and still save money. Suuure a lot of the costs are judicial and you can jump up and down and say they have too many appeals and should just be taken out back and shot on the spot. Of course I will point back to the 139 (so far) freed guys - some of which took over 20 years.

First I would never make the argument that *any* kind of penalty deters violent crime - it doesn't.

And yes, the death penalty is expensive precisely because there is a large portion of the legal community committed to making it so.

The fact that the death penalty has been improperly applied is a valid argument for applying it correctly. There are many cases that do not rely on DNA testing that was not used at the time of conviction etc..

I don't question the sincerity of the opposition to capital punishment and I certainly don't want to anyone to see it as 'cure' or "solution" or "deterrent" But I think there are times when it is the appropriate response and I don't see it as "barbaric".

Ask yourself the question if you came home and found somebody standing over the body of your mother with her blood on his hands :

would you be able to take his life - right then, right there if the means were at hand ?

If there were a policeman standing next to you would you be okay with him taking that life.

Would you be okay with the state doing it a year later?

If you can honestly say no to all three then at least there is some consistency. Personally, I know exactly what my answers would be. And I would never ask the state to do something in my name I do not feel I would be capable of doing with my own hands.





>
>>I will listen to arguments against capital punishment from genuine pacifist who would really not take life in any circumstances, who would not permit abortion, would go to jail rather than pay taxes to support a military and who would forbid police from using lethal force to save innocent life. I would consider them mad, but at least I'd believe in the consistency of their conviction.
>>From anyone else, I suspect a desire to be thought well of by those they consider their intellectual and moral betters.
>>
>>I just don't feel the need for that kind of approval. There are humans who have behaved in a way that justifies spinning their Wheel of Samsara. A society that will spend $100,000 a year and legal fees to keep someone truly evil alive and let innocents die for lack of care is splitting moral hairs and coming down on the wrong side.
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>>>
>>>>>>>Why not. I find ridicule always comes in handy when debating with pro capital punishment types. Have a good day :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>"pro capital punishment types" ? Wow.
>>>>>
>>>>>Why wow ?
>>>>
>>>>I guess I have trouble visualizing "types" based on an opinion about most single issues. I usually find people and ideas more complex than that.