Should the death penalty be brought back?

[cressida 1,586]

no, we are supposed to be better than killers, to execute them, we would be killing in cold blood

[marmite 10]

I said no, purely becasue anyone who takes another life, or rapes someone, should suffer, or be beaten to an inch of their life, killing them is an easy way out. Im a heartless git when it comes to this sort of stuff and have no sympathy for the convict, but if someone say raped my daughter or member of my family, i think leaving them in a room with me would probably be worse than death. Rumour has it that rapists who go to prison get a tough time from the cons, quite rightfully they should.

[cressida 1,586]

No. the judge gives the sentence, which is incarceration, that is their punishment, anyone else has no right to give another

[KingMaker 10]

If you are at that point where you are desperate/crazy enough to kill someone, you are not exactly going to be too concerned with whether you go to jail for life or if you are executed if caught. Besides you don't intend getting caught, do you, when commiting a crime?

 

 

How do you know? You can't speak for all would be murderers can you?

 

For some it may make no difference but for others it may stop them carrying out the deed. I would wager that most murderers are not very brave,

and the thought that they may lose their own life due to their actions might

distinguish any thoughts about murdering someone.

To suggest that the Death Penalty deterrant won't even deter one murder is have information that no-one here on this board possses.

[troyhark 10]

How do you know? You can't speak for all would be murderers can you?

 

For some it may make no difference but for others it may stop them carrying out the deed. I would wager that most murderers are not very brave,

and the thought that they may lose their own life due to their actions might

distinguish any thoughts about murdering someone.

To suggest that the Death Penalty deterrant won't even deter one murder is have information that no-one here on this board possses.

Missing a major point, you don't tend to do something if you think are going to be caught in first place. As you as don't expect to get caught, you aren't exactly going to debate life sentence/vs murder. Besides if you have gone to the point where you are going to kill someone, you have dismissed a lot of cultural mores or may be driven to it. Either way, no deterrent.

And if ever there was proof that Capital Punishment does not work, look at how many people smoke despite knowing there is a big chance it will kill them. Slowly and painfully.

 

And the fact that innocent people regularly are found guilty means supporting the death penalty, means you support the killing of innocents, therefore there is an argument for killing you as you are condoning and supporting murder.

[Chris_Sleeps 10]

If anyone killed or injured one of mine, that's exactly what I'd want, only I prefer to call it vengence

Call it what you want, its not justice.

[plekhanov 10]

Anyone arguing that the death penalty would be a deterrent needs to stop and think a little.

 

Most murders in the UK basically involve people murdering people close to them in fits of rage, these murders involve a loss of control, the death penalty won’t deter anyone from doing so as such murderers really aren’t thinking that far ahead.

 

You then have a much smaller number of murders committed by people who actually make a conscious decision to kill and plan the crime, they generally commit murder thinking not that they can easily deal with spending 20+ years in jail but that they won’t get caught. The death penalty isn’t much of a deterrent to people who don’t think they’ll get caught.

 

So when people say the death penalty is a deterrent who exactly is it that they think it will deter?

[personal5579 10]

I dont agree with the death penalty. In countries that still have the punishment it does not act as a deterrant. Plus there will always be the chance you get the wrong man - and I cant imagine anything worse than being put to death for something you did not do - it would be sickening.

[Halibut 12]

And your point is?

 

If anyone killed or injured one of mine, that's exactly what I'd want, only I prefer to call it vengence, bloodlust doesn't come into it. The bloodlust is on the part of the attacker or killer, surely?

 

I think I said almost at the start that if the child in question had been one of mine, only the painful death of the man who assaulted and raped her would satisfy me.

 

The saving in money and space is just a by-product.

 

Bloodlust on the part of the attacker? Not so sure myself. I believe very, very few people kill for the sheer pleasure of it and that the majority of killings are carried out in rage or anger at some perceived slight.

Would you be prepared to inflict that painful death on another human being, knowing him to be some womans son, knowing that your action would bring dreadful grief and loss to that woman?

[rubydazzler 11]

Would you be prepared to inflict that painful death on another human being, knowing him to be some womans son, knowing that your action would bring dreadful grief and loss to that woman?

 

Yes, of course, if their adult child had brought dreadful grief and loss to me, why would I care about them? How could they care about a child rapist, especially one that abducts a small child from its bath, rapes and sexually abuses it and then abandons it naked and bleeding in an alley, even if that base creature had once been their child? They should regard it as atonement.

 

I sometimes wonder if some of you imagine yourselves with a gold nimbus around your heads, you utter such saintly things.

[rubydazzler 11]

Call it what you want, its not justice.

 

If they plead guilty and they're proved guilty, how can it not be justice? Don't you have children? If you have, do you then care more about their attacker and what happens to that person , than you do about what happened to your child? I don't understand you at all.

[Halibut 12]

Yes, of course, if their adult child had brought dreadful grief and loss to me, why would I care about them? How could they care about a child rapist, especially one that abducts a small child from its bath, rapes and sexually abuses it and then abandons it naked and bleeding in an alley, even if that base creature had once been their child? They should regard it as atonement.

 

I sometimes wonder if some of you imagine yourselves with a gold nimbus around your heads, you utter such saintly things.

And what if the tables were turned? Let's suppose that a hypothetical child of yours who you loved dearly had 'gone off the rails' and comitted a capital crime - rape, murder. Would you still believe it right for your child to die, to be killed by the state?

 

''How could they care about a child rapist?'' An understandable to question to ask but imagine for yourself - that child rapist was once an innocent baby, loved and adored by its mother, a happy child full of promise and life. Somewhere along the line something goes wrong, the child ends up a sexual offender. Are you able as that childs loving parent able to turn off that love like a tap and 'not care' about their son?

I expect you'd feel anger, grief, shame, guilt and a whole host of other emotions, but do you really believe the mothers of such people are able to stop loving their offspring when they do such dreadful things?

 

Edited for punctuation.