The alternative to capital punishment?

Mrs Robinson 2 B

i think they should get life that means life! yes it would cost tax payers but the odds are it would cost us money regardless anyway with housing benefits and such for them! i also think when there is hard evidence capital punishment should be an option! but thats just my opinion.

DWM

Life without parole.... People talk about the cost, we could house them under the same kind of program as many county work houses operate. They can work generating revenues for the facility that houses them. If they choose not to work, they sit in there cell 23 hours out of every day, no TV, no books(other than their choice of religious material), 1 hour of exercise, alone.... Make them pay their own way.....

DAR

Lobotomy is an option, but I'd prefer capital punishment myself.

(I think.)

freddfubar

ask the victims?oh iforgot they are dead.

Peter B

Are you sure that the majority are against capital punishment.
Most of the population are'nt on Yahoo answers, I suspect that most of you are fairly young and still idealistic as opposed to being older and realistic.Looking at your answers (similiar questions have been asked before) you concern yourselves with the perpetrators rights and how barbaric capital punishment is. Don't forget about the victims and their rights which have been cruelly taken away from them in the most barbaric manner. I'm not an old testament adherent but sometimes there's nothing wrong with an eye for an eye philosophy.

rowdy

Here's an idea I heard on the radio -

Let's have a referendum on capital punishment. You can vote "for" or "against", but the price of voting "for" would be giving your name and address.

Then, if it's carried, and there's a miscarriage of justice and an innocent man is hanged, the names would go into one of those lottery machines on a Saturday night. Maybe a big show with Ant and Dec.

The "winner" would be hanged as retribution for the relatives of the innocent person. They couldn't possibly complain, as we're always hearing, "better an innocent man gets hanged than all these rapists/muggers/murderers walk the streets".

Rommel

the alternitive to capital punishment is simple.....your looking at it. and it gets worse year after year after year. EADS!!BACK IN THE SAND EVERY ONE.

joan k

Life should mean life I wouldn't mind paying to keep them inside for the rest of their lives so that they can't kill, or rape again. You could always make them earn their keep.

guason12003

There's no alternative. What's there equal to death?
Because that's what an alternative is.It could be an "instead", which is not quite at the same level.
This has been, as many others, a political issue, which we know, is purposely impossible to solve. Either one are finacial burdens.
Prisioners sentenced to death are just as costly as the ones sentenced to life in prision.
Besides being in prision for several years, the tremendous burocracy involved and high costs of litigation on the appeals, equal if not surpases the amount of tax dollars spent.
So, in short, politics, in every country, will continue to perpetuate the "Moral Dillema" created by this issue.

ron

The number for and against the rei-nstatement of capital punishment in a forum like this is not totally represenative of public opinion in the UK.

Whenever there has been a public opinion poll, there has always been a majority in favour of it's return in this country, it's a case of the government being against it, everytime there has been a vote in the house of commons, those against the re-instatement has been overwhelming and has increased at each vote.

I would suggest that in the worst cases life should mean life, but with hard labour to offset the cost of upkeep.

Justin Case

Letting hard core criminals out to kill and rape again sure isn't the answer. However, that seems to be the liberal answer.

It seems simple. Either execute them and put them out of ours and their misery, or let them rot and die in the hard core maximum security wing of a prison where they can rape each other to death.

Future Psychologist =]

Hi Steven.
I recently had to write a paper for Critical Thinking, taking a position on Capital Punishment. Here it is.
Oh and this is a great question....

After listening to the National Public Radio podcast: Florida Mulls Lethal â€“ Injection, I was saddened by the facts that were given by Dahlia Lithwick on the execution of Angel Diaz. On December 13TH 2006 a man who committed a murder on December 29TH 1979, was put to death. "Not only did the procedure take 34 minutes, which is 20 minutes longer than usual, it required, apparently, according to testimony, 14 vials of chemicals to be inserted into veins in both arms, and because the IV lines went into his tissue and not the veins, it was just a disaster" (Dahlia Lithwick, National Public Radio. Feb 13, 2007.)
Just a few moments before he was executed Angel Diaz once again denied killing Joseph Nagy, but still he was made to walk that long journey to the execution room where his life was placed in the hands of man. Regardless of whether or not Mr. Diaz is guilty or innocent is no longer an issue because the execution is over. The issue is should the U.S. continue to use capital punishment? I stand firm on the belief that capital punishment is cruel and shows nothing but hypocrisy in our Nation. I use the word hypocrisy because if someone is put to death because they took the life of another individual then how is it justice to repeat that same act? If one holds the belief that murder is wrong then they are simply taking part in an act of cruelty (even though it may be against their beliefs) to execute an inmate because it is their job. I can not help but wonder how painful the guilt is of those who execute and the Psychological aftermath that they carry with them for a lifetime knowing that they took part in killing a fellow human being. Mr. Diaz committed murder in 1979 but was not executed until 2006. How did Joseph Nagyâ€™s family benefit from the execution of Angel Diaz 27 years after their loved one was taken from them?
Capital punishment comes down to taking a living life and spirit and ceasing it to no longer exist. Machines and poisoness concoctions make it easy for the courts to say â€œwe sentence you to deathâ€ but if the system took away the death penalty they would have to find a more humane way of punishing the accused. There is nothing wrong with locking someone in a cell with food, water, shower privileges, recreation time and of course individual therapy as well as time for spiritual growth. Hand a murderer a death sentence they may get angry, hostile and may never repent but hand a murderer a Bible and you are giving them a chance to grow, reflect and repent which in return can bring healing to the family of the victim. â€œWe oppose capital punishment not just for what it does to those guilty of horrible crimes, but For what it does to all of us as a society. Increasing reliance on the death penalty diminishes all of us and is a sign of growing disrespect for human life. We cannot overcome crime by simply executing criminals, nor can we restore the lives of the innocent by ending the lives of those convicted of their murders. The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life.â€
(Administrative Committee of the United States Catholic Conference, March 24,1999 http://www.nodeathpenaltywi.org/PDF/FIA_QuotesfromRelLeaders.pdf)
I like the quote above because it really makes sense. â€œThe death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking lifeâ€ In the end who wins when an execution is over? The answer is nobody. When it is all said and done and the body is removed we have now added another victim to the count and this time it could have been prevented.
I will close with this quote, â€œThe death penalty says, â€˜Itâ€™s over. We hold no hope for you.â€™ When you look at Jesusâ€™ life, you come to a different conclusion. His mission was one of redemption and love and mercy and forgiveness. The death penalty just writes folks off.â€--Dr. Ronald Hingdon, Southern Baptist minister http://www.nodeathpenaltywi.org/PDF/FIA_QuotesfromRelLeaders.pdf)
It is time to take a stand and learn about the message of redemption, love, mercy and forgiveness. When we as a nation can do that it is then that we will see a change in our reactions to those who some feel are not worthy of living. May Joseph Nagy and Angel Diaz rest in peace.
-Kristin Orbin

I understand your points perfectly well and agree that it should probably be quick, 34 minutes is not good.-
Oh no you misunderstood. I do not think it should be quick because I do not think it should happen at all....this is just my opinion of course =)

CLIVE H

The problem with "murder" is that all to often this occurs in a domestic situation. Wife bashes husbands head in with a wooden rolling pin while he sleeps etc. Such a crime cannot in any way be described as 'manslaughter'. So, is this wife, beaten for 20 years by her cruel and drunken husband to be hanged by the neck until she is dead? I hope and think not.

In the case of such as murder as described above, we could argue that the poor woman had temporarily lost her mind and was no longer in control. A temporary insanity. Such cases are well known.

The other important thing we must always think of, is that the Judges of England are not going to just put someone away for endless years, not without very good reason. If it were the case that this supposed cruelly treated wife had gone on to kill other people with her rolling pin, then this would be quite different.

I think in the original case we must allow this poor woman the shortest possible time in a prison cell but the maximum time to put things right by psychiatric help.

One former Lord Chancellor of England, the late Lord Hailsham once said in a TV interview, that during his time as Lord Chancellor, he estimated that about 60% of guilty people just got off, the poor darlings.

You see, in England, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Why then are so many of us willing to just pay a speeding fine without going to court? Do they have proof that you dunnit? Probably not. Fifty percent get off.

Steven C

I think every state should have one and just for capitol crimes. If you get say a sentence of 230 years without the chance of parole. Then why should I have to feed you your entire life. Kill them and save the tax payers some money.

banjet15

Chain gangs.

Jia Hua

Well, I say give 'em the good ol' noose. It is costing us millions to keep them in the Prision, Money out of your tax, them maybe, we can have universal health-care.

Glenn B

Life does not mean life, unfortunately. Why? People kill other inmates and staff in the prisons and they escape to kill again. I suppose the only alternative would be to put a person in a cell and leave them...no food, no water, no bath, no medical treatment, oh...but that is cruel and unusual.

StingRay

Rapists and paedophiles should be put in cages in the street so that people can spit at them and poke them with pointy sticks.

ahsoasho2u2

CHANGE THE LAWS TO READ NOT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT BUT;

"ABORTION FROM SOCIETY."

WE CAN ABORT ANYTHING LEGALLY?
IT IS SUCH A CLEAN WORD TO USE.
NON OFFENSIVE? NICE AND EASY? SOCIETY LIKES THE WORD ABORT?

YOU HAVE BEEN ABORTED FROM?
WE WILL CARRY OUT THE SENTENCE TOMORROW, THERE IS NO APPEAL.

chocula

Just let them go.

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