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Registered: October 29, 2006
Posts: 2
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La pena de muerte...
Recently I had to do a speech on the death penalty for uni & it's one subject that really fires me up - I disagree heart & soul with the death penalty, mainly bcos I dont believe anyone has the right to take away another persons life, even in punishment. Who are we to decide who is worthy of life?
What does everyone else think?
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Registered: September 06, 2005
Posts: 115
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Never, ever, put a price on a human beings life. Even if they made the mistakes that the felons who are in the CA prisons have made...NEVER put a price on someone's life. No one has that right and really it's just horrible.
<3 "War is not the answer" "Where is the love?" <3
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Registered: December 19, 2006
Posts: 6
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"The California death penalty system costs taxpayers more than $114 million a year beyond the cost of simply keeping the convicts locked up for life. (This figure does not take into account additional court costs for post-conviction hearings in state and federal courts, estimated to exceed several million dollars.)" So let's look at this from a simple add and subtract mnethod. There are 34,501,130 inmates in the California Penal System. If it costs $114 million a year to execute the small number of Death Penalty convicts that could seem like quite a lot of money. But if you add how much money it costs to keep an inmate in prison for 1 year the costs greatly out weigh the death penalty costs. On average it costs $31,000 a year to keep a prisoner locked up, this of course is not including Max Security Prisoners. So if you add that to the total population you get $5.7 Billion a year. Compared to $114 million a year for killing criminals, I think it is fair to say that it is cheaper to humanely kill criminals who have been sentenced to death, rather than allow them to live in prison for 70-80 years at the higher prices it costs to keep them alive.
Veritas Et Aequitas
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Registered: December 11, 2006
Posts: 41
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killing someone who's committed a horrible crime is just too easy. some people become martyrs, and others just die and don't have to deal with all the pain and chaos they caused others. some are counting on dying. instead, they should be made to watch all the home videos of the people they killed, over and over. they should get beat up each night, too.
Just breathe...
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Registered: December 19, 2006
Posts: 6
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So what you are saying is it is wrong for the Judicial system to sentence a person to death, even though that person may have killed 20 people? What gave that person the right to choose to end someone else's life? If you want a fair and equal Judicial system, the punishment must fit the crime. At least the criminals die without pain, whereas their victims died horrible deaths.
Veritas Et Aequitas
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Registered: November 05, 2004
Posts: 6058
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Other countries allow their citizens to possess weapons, yet they don't have nearly as much violence as the United States does. It's something more than a simple lack of strict gun control. There's no easy solution to this problem. If you have the death penalty, people will call it cruel and unusual. Lock offenders away, and people call it cruel and unusual. Of course, our current prison system is a joke. The only effective prisons are the supermax prisons, like the ADX in Florence, Colorado, where prisoners are locked away in solitary for the majority of the year. Even that's not perfect, since Amnesty International has taken it upon itself to complain about those prisons. No one will be happy. At least with the death penalty we don't have to worry about repeat offenders. Or overcrowding. Or prison riots. Or any number of problems that arise from not-quite-life in prison.
The more you know, the less you don't know.
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Registered: November 29, 2003
Posts: 1910
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Note to everyone involved: It actually costs almost twice as much to execute people than it does to keep them in prison for life. This is because of all the GOVERMENT MANDATED appeals that go into actually killing them. From http://www.deathpenalty.org/index.php?pid=cost&menu=1%22"The California death penalty system costs taxpayers more than $114 million a year beyond the cost of simply keeping the convicts locked up for life. (This figure does not take into account additional court costs for post-conviction hearings in state and federal courts, estimated to exceed several million dollars.)" By the way, amp, one of the main reasons we have so much violence in the US is your good friend the 2nd Amendment. But thats a whole 'nother topic.
"If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated," p.60, "1984," by George Orwell
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Registered: October 28, 2005
Posts: 5354
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Maybe but it seems highly unlikely that it doesn't happen anywhere else.
draft beer not soldiers...
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Registered: February 22, 2004
Posts: 13981
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we don't hear about it because it doesn't happen LTR
"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done"."
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Registered: October 28, 2005
Posts: 5354
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quote: I mean you here about LA getting shot up but east london? or manchester?
Maybe we don't hear about them because as a country we are more concerned with what happens inside our borders than outside. Unless of course it has to do with the war. I really have no idea. You could be right.
draft beer not soldiers...
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Registered: February 22, 2004
Posts: 13981
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quote: off topic but why do you think this is?
well to start they don't have freakin gangwars in a good chunk of their major cities (don't even have many attempts at streetgangs much less groups like the bloods and crips) I mean you here about LA getting shot up but east london? or manchester? hell the majority of the hospitals there have around 5 bullet wounds come in a year and those are hunting accidents. A hospital in say baltimore would likely have close to 10 times that traffic just from violent crimes (primarily gang related) in a single NIGHT
"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done"."
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Registered: November 27, 2004
Posts: 1322
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Registered: November 27, 2004
Posts: 1322
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quote:
repeat: death penalty is not supposed to be deterent... next please?
if you read a little below you'd see that it was in response to someone who'd said it is. quote:
not as little of a threat as if they're dead
seriously that is NOT why the death penalty exists, if the problem is safety well fix the fucking prisons, God. That doesn't justify killing people. next please? quote:
question if your going to go to all the trouble and expense of keeping these people locked up for life with no way to get out wouldn't it be 1. easier 2. cheaper and 3. less crowding of the prisons to just off the bastards?
This isn't for you specifically. does anyone KNOW how much it actually costs? quote:
To start the US has a higher population then canada and any european nation so comparing those numbers in any light will of course show the US as doing rather poorly.
Ok so I'll try to find the numbers and then do it in proportion to the population quote: Next the US has more actively violent groups
off topic but why do you think this is?
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. - E.B.White
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Registered: February 22, 2004
Posts: 13981
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quote: It has been proven that it does not work as a deterrent..
repeat: death penalty is not supposed to be deterent... next please? quote: Once in prison, those serving life sentences often settle into a routine and are less of a threat to commit violence than other prisoners
not as little of a threat as if they're dead quote: Moreover, most states now have a sentence of life without parole. Prisoners who are given this sentence will never be released.
question if your going to go to all the trouble and expense of keeping these people locked up for life with no way to get out wouldn't it be 1. easier 2. cheaper and 3. less crowding of the prisons to just off the bastards? quote: The U.S., with the death penalty, has a higher murder rate than the countries of Europe or Canada, which do not use the death penalty.
ahh statistics, the thinking man's bullshit. To start the US has a higher population then canada and any european nation so comparing those numbers in any light will of course show the US as doing rather poorly. Next the US has more actively violent groups (EXs" Bloods, Crips and the Republican Army of Texas) than both Canada and Europe (notable exception being the IRA of Ireland, but they disarmed in the mid-90's. Another exception is the Basques of Spain and Action Directe of France but both groups are largely defunct now) So that to will influence the murder rate to be higher.
"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done"."
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Registered: November 27, 2004
Posts: 1322
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quote: Those who believe that deterrence justifies the execution of certain offenders bear the burden of proving that the death penalty is a deterrent. The overwhelming conclusion from years of deterrence studies is that the death penalty is, at best, no more of a deterrent than a sentence of life in prison. The Ehrlich studies have been widely discredited. In fact, some criminologists, such as William Bowers of Northeastern University, maintain that the death penalty has the opposite effect: that is, society is brutalized by the use of the death penalty, and this increases the likelihood of more murder. Even most supporters of the death penalty now place little or no weight on deterrence as a serious justification for its continued use.
States in the United States that do not employ the death penalty generally have lower murder rates than states that do. The same is true when the U.S. is compared to countries similar to it. The U.S., with the death penalty, has a higher murder rate than the countries of Europe or Canada, which do not use the death penalty.
The death penalty is not a deterrent because most people who commit murders either do not expect to be caught or do not carefully weigh the differences between a possible execution and life in prison before they act. Frequently, murders are committed in moments of passion or anger, or by criminals who are substance abusers and acted impulsively. As someone who presided over many of Texas's executions, former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox has remarked, "It is my own experience that those executed in Texas were not deterred by the existence of the death penalty law. I think in most cases you'll find that the murder was committed under severe drug and alcohol abuse."
There is no conclusive proof that the death penalty acts as a better deterrent than the threat of life imprisonment. A survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies found that 84% of these experts rejected the notion that research had demonstrated any deterrent effect from the death penalty .
Once in prison, those serving life sentences often settle into a routine and are less of a threat to commit violence than other prisoners. Moreover, most states now have a sentence of life without parole. Prisoners who are given this sentence will never be released. Thus, the safety of society can be assured without using the death penalty
http://deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/c/about/arguments/argument1b.htminteresting site, check it out.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. - E.B.White
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Registered: March 08, 2004
Posts: 1686
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Yeah, study after study shows that it's not the severity of the punishment that's the deterrent, but rather the likelihood of any punsihment at all. If anything's gonna reduce the crime rate in America, it's Giuliani-style targetting of random minor offenders that we'd normally let slip through the cracks.
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Registered: December 14, 2004
Posts: 5770
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quote: It's seriously in need in America because the crime rate is high.
It has been proven that it does not work as a deterrent..
They'll like us when we win - Toby Ziegler.
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Registered: November 09, 2006
Posts: 10
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I am in favor of the death penalty because it impacts us socially and politically as well. It's seriously in need in America because the crime rate is high.
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Registered: February 22, 2004
Posts: 13981
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quote: For more horrid puns visit my rather interesting blog
better than my blog. I just dump angst and severe rantage in there
"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done"."
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Registered: December 03, 2006
Posts: 8
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Thank you. With this award I shall fight the good fight over forums all across this great nation LOL For more horrid puns visit my rather interesting blog.  |
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