What is Your Opinion on Death Sentence?

[MikeK]

An Egyptan court has sentenced 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death on charges including murder

This ^ has just popped up on my iPad and to say that I'm shocked is to say nothing.

What is your opinion on death sentence in the 21st century, not this particular sentence but in general?
Is it allowed in your country (state)? Do you think it should be?

I will post something and answer my own questions once Im back home from university.

 

[King_JCD]

Im in texas and currently the death sentence is allowed here. Personally, I find it hard to say whether it's a justifiable punishment or not. I mean, some people definitely deserve death, but alot of people no doubt recieve the death sentence even though theyve been framed. And the whole thing just kinda sucks. (Quick moment of silence for everyone who's been wrongly put to the death sentence .........)

I think overall it should be allowed, because those who are guilty should definitely pay for their punishment in kind. But, as with every form of law, there are people who unfairly get the wrong end of the stick, and I just think it's impossible to say whether we should fully have it or not when our legal/court system is not black and white, but rather, a million shades of grey.

 

[Jana]

My opinion:
Death Sentence shouldn´t be allowed (no matter where). Why? Because I think, nobody has the right to take a life. And I know, murderers do that but to inflict death sentences, we (or the state) range on the same level. Maybe I would think different, if someone from my family is getting killed. That topic was discussed a lot when I went to school (especially in religion class). @King_JCD: You say, it should be allowed, because those who are guilty should pay for their punishment in kind but I think, this "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" mentality shouldn´t be used in the 21st century anymore.
Besides these things, there´s an economic reason to stop using death penalties.
Example: One could think, the death penalty costs the taxpayer less than a lifelong imprisonment, but afaik, this is not true. An execution costs the state (in my example North Carolina) 2,16 million dollars more than a longlife punishment. Not the execution itself is so expensive, but experts, investigations, opinions of experts and a longer taking procedure and many people are waiting years or even tens of years for their execution. Besides that, as you said, there are people who are innocent and get executed.

 

[Storky]

My opinion:
Death Sentence shouldn´t be allowed (no matter where). Why? Because I think, nobody has the right to take a life. And I know, murderers do that but to inflict death sentences, we (or the state) range on the same level. Maybe I would think different, if someone from my family is getting killed. That topic was discussed a lot when I went to school (especially in religion class). @King_JCD: You say, it should be allowed, because those who are guilty should pay for their punishment in kind but I think, this "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" mentality shouldn´t be used in the 21st century anymore.
Besides these things, there´s an economic reason to stop using death penalties.
Example: One could think, the death penalty costs the taxpayer less than a lifelong imprisonment, but afaik, this is not true. An execution costs the state (in my example North Carolina) 2,16 million dollars more than a longlife punishment. Not the execution itself is so expensive, but experts, investigations, opinions of experts and a longer taking procedure and many people are waiting years or even tens of years for their execution. Besides that, as you said, there are people who are innocent and get executed.

I'm not agreeing with death sentances, nor am I agreeing that they shouldn't be imposed, but:

Aside from the economic reasons, what about the humanitarian?

What is "humanely" worse for an individual?

1. Being sent to a maximum security prison for life (without ANY chance of early release).

2. Being sentanced to death in a relatively painless and quick procedure.


My personal opinion:
I think that convicted criminals, whereby the severity of their crimes is so vast (that they are sentanced to consecutive lives in jail) should get the CHOICE, to be put to death or serve the rest of their life in jail. It should not in any way be in decided by the state (like @Jana said, "an eye for an eye"); only the criminal who's choice it was to commit the crime.

 

[Rexz >:)]

Yeah enough said.

 

[theGenius]

im generally not for the death sentence, and we dont have it where i live.
however, it is easy to say that aslong as you are fine. if someone comits a horrible crime against YOUR loved ones, i think peoples (including mine) opinions could change drastically towards the death penalty. and no matter how anti death u are before that, u can never predict how you would react ones its reality.
i consider this something i simply cant judge because of lack of knowledge.

 

[WaLLy]

An eye for an eye.

 

[TheDude]

An eye for an eye.

Makes the whole world go blind.[DOUBLEPOST=1395674186][/DOUBLEPOST]My primary concern is that the death sentence is final, and humans make mistakes. Even in the highest tier of studied court officials, the system fails MANY times. Plenty of people put to death probably were innocent, in other words. While it's not a majority, most likely, it still happens. If they are dead, there is no way to undo that mistake.
Going to law school doesn't mean you are responsible enough to dish out death. Plenty of people who go to law school are terrible human beings, and plenty are idiots.

Humans have demonstrated over and over again that the power to kill is too much for this race to handle. We are simply not responsible enough.

I say take that power away anywhere it can be taken away.

 

[SteelHorse]

@MikeK, how does a court sentence 529 ppl to death like that?

In this case, I would say no. Sentencing that many people to death sounds very fishy and wrong. I'd like to hear a little more on how they were sentenced.

In the case of individuals going through the proper court system, absolutely.

I say take that power away anywhere it can be taken away.

It's mentalities like that, that starts arguments. Just because you see it one way, you think everyone everywhere else should too.

 

[Rival]

( Bringing up this subject is gonna start a shitstorm and you know that @MikeK )

If you've done something so bad that you're sentenced to death, you're a lucky man.
Death is a luxury rapists, pedophiles, murderers etc. don't deserve.
Make the rest of their life on this earth a living fucking hell, that's my opinion.
Stop testing make-up and perfumes on animals. There are plenty of pedophiles out there who deserve the suffering.

You can't say if they die they get sent to hell. There's no actual proof of hell even existing. Now making their life hell is very possible = the way to go.

I am also against Swedish Prisons. Just the way they are. Such luxury.
FFS, the jail food is better than the school food here. Now that's fucking ridiculous.
For some people, going to jail would be an absolute improvement of their life.
Luckily there's no death sentence here. But rapists etc. are given the luxury that jail has to offer. You can live a better life on the inside. And that's not OK. It's fucking stupid.

My final verdict on death sentence:

 

[King_JCD]

I agree with @theGenius, in the given respect, you'll just never know how your gonna react to this sort of thing unless you face it first-hand. So while you might claim allegiance to one opinion, you might react very differently in reality. :/

 

[jasmine]

hello
I've ever read and you quetion that remains is:

"GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY"
and knowing that everyone will agree that "erorr is human" we are talking about a global and not a case by case law
I personnaly against
society of 21 century can not take the life of a human being we have other coercive means (life imprisonment, chemical straitjacket, labor camp, etc ...)

 

[MikeK]

hello
I've ever read and you quetion that remains is:

"GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY"
and knowing that everyone will agree that "erorr is human" we are talking about a global and not a case by case law
I personnaly against
society of 21 century can not take the life of a human being we have other coercive means (life imprisonment, chemical straitjacket, labor camp, etc ...)

Please, try to upload content (articles, images) in English

Not sure why the map states that the death penalty is abolished in practice in Russia, it was a 'temporary' measure that was abolished just a couple of years after the Constitution was adopted. It is now banned by the Constitutional Court and the decisions of the CC cannot be overturned and are on the level of the Constitution. I'd place it somewhere between green and blue countries.

 

[Dunial]

IMO it's good that the death sentence isn't allowed here in Germany. I think a punishment is supposed to give criminals the chance to see what they've done and to regret. If you just kill them, they don't even have a chance. Then of course there's the question if they deserve a second chance. IMO everyone deserves a 2nd chance but i don't know if i'd think different if i was concerned myself.

 

[jasmine]

IMO it's good that the death sentence isn't allowed here in Germany. I think a punishment is supposed to give criminals the chance to see what they've done and to regret. If you just kill them, they don't even have a chance. Then of course there's the question if they deserve a second chance. IMO everyone deserves a 2nd chance but i don't know if i'd think different if i was concerned myself.

I don't think we should bring this matter to'm even asking but overall it's on tomorrow if it was hurting my family I was radically change my opinion.
that is why we love democracy because this one we preserve our basest instincs because all law is subject to a vote
even when it is very hard to see that the USA are in the same list as china cuba Saudi Arabia iran north korea ...
may be because of its history and gun culture I do not know!

 

[WaLLy]

IMO it's good that the death sentence isn't allowed here in Germany. I think a punishment is supposed to give criminals the chance to see what they've done and to regret. If you just kill them, they don't even have a chance. Then of course there's the question if they deserve a second chance. IMO everyone deserves a 2nd chance but i don't know if i'd think different if i was concerned myself.

I'm all up for giving 2nd chances but I wouldn't want to give murderers ANY 2nd chance. Jail them forever or give them the death penalty.

 

[Gage]

Nope. I'm not for the death sentence. Google wrongful execution. Before DNA technology actually became available, tons of prisoners were sentenced to death for crimes they had not committed.

I had to write a paper on this a while ago for one of my law classes and I found that 22 people in the U.S. were wrongfully sentenced to death.
Many of you might think that's not big of a deal since the number is so low but if you think about how precious one's life is and how those 22 people spent their last moments trying to prove their innocence, it is.

15 inmates were also released from the death penalty once DNA technology proved their innocence.
The number is only continuing to rise.

 

[Nikon]

The consequence for murder should be the death penalty. If you take away someones life, their future... why should you be given one?

Perhaps if people knew that the penalty for taking another persons life was to lose their own, they would think twice about doing such a thing.

And with all of the new forensics technology, the number of wrongly accused and sentenced people should go down too.

 

[MikeK]

1. The consequence for murder should be the death penalty. If you take away someones life, their future... why should you be given one?

2. Perhaps if people knew that the penalty for taking another persons life was to lose their own, they would think twice about doing such a thing.

3. And with all of the new forensics technology, the number of wrongly accused and sentenced people should go down too.

1. IMO, life imprisonment is even worse than death penalty. It's like you are being killed for decades.
2. According to the statistics, it mostly depends on inevitability of a punishment rather than on it's cruelty.
3. It might decrease a bit, but not by 100%. And even one innocent life is, IMO, too much.

 

[Titoezz]

Ive seen a docu on death penalties in numerous different states and i think it isnt even that bad..
Man id rather be killed by some dumb injection than think myself to death in prison for the rest of my life.
Getting life in prison without parole is way worse than the death penalty nowadays.

Think about it, you can rape 50 kids kill 20 grannies and get escorted to a hospital where you get carefully laid down on a bed and given 3 simple injections, thats it. Heaven for all psychos on earth.