Why on Earth do people still support the death penalty?

Susan S

I wish that people who are ready to exact revenge and support the death penalty would take the time to learn some hard facts about it. The death penalty is not an effective way to keep us safe, and to prevent crime. People who oppose the death penalty do not condone brutal and depraved acts and do not excuse the people who commit them. People should use common sense based on the facts, not rush to revenge.

Here are just a few of the facts.

The death penalty is not a deterrent. Homicide rates are much higher in states that have the death penalty than in states that do not.

The death penalty system costs much more than a system that does not have the death penalty. Much of these extra costs come way before the appeals begin. (In my opinion, some of the extra money should be spent on victims' services, which are underfunded.)

The death penalty is racially biased, but not in the way you may think. A defendent is twice as likely to face the death penalty if the victim was white than if the victim was non white.

More and more states have life without parole on the books. It means what it says and is no picnic to be locked up for 23 of 24 hours a day, with no hope of anything else.

Over 120 people on death rows have been released with evidence of their innocence. In the majority of these cases, the evidence was not DNA, which is not often available. More often, the problem is one of mistaken eyewitnesses. After an execution, the case is closed. If the wrong person was executed the real killer is still out there. It is human nature to make mistakes and executing an innocent person, killing an innocent person in our name should be unacceptable in a civilized society.

Speeding up the process will certainly result in the execution of innocent people, some people just like you, your families and friends. Ordinary, law abiding people have been sentenced to death, spent years on death rows, and, thankfully, were saved in time.

The death penalty can be very hard on the families of murder victims. As the process goes on they are forced to relive their ordeal in the courts and in the media. The death penalty revictimizes families of murder victims. Life without parole is sure and swift and rarely appealed.

ItsJustMe

Why on earth should my tax dollars go to support violent repeat offenders who have committed multiple murders and have been convicted based on DNA or other irrefutable evidence?

That is why I support the death penalty. I don't want to have to keep paying for these serial killers to live, eat, go to school, play on the internet, and have more freedoms that most people are aware that they get in prison.

jim b

we should have the death penalty in the UK for murder, hard drug pushers and kiddy fiddlers.

tabithap

If you take someone else's life you negate your own right to live. Why shouldn't I support it?

Janbull

I do.

An eye for an eye.

urbanfossil

The death penalty is the ultimate punishment for the most heinous crime. Our criminal justice system does not have a set plan for what they hope to accomplish: rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation, or even retribution. Many death penalty advocates argue that it is a deterrent; however, that have been disproven repeatedly. The death penalty offers retribution for the victims and their families. This is why it is appealing to many people.

Leogirl0804

Why on Earth do people not support the death penalty.

kelly709904

ever heard of peadophiles and child killers... i just wish the uk had it.

Seok-Ju K

Because it is an easy way to deal with serious offenders, and it means they won't come back and do it again. The problem with this is that, what if you get the wrong person? The an innocent person will have been killed.

The prison system is supposed to stop repeat offenders, but in many cases it doesn't, and though the death penalty doesn't stop people doing the initial crimes, it does stop the repeat offenders.

Then there is the slightly increased illusion of safety, that somehow the world will become a little safer before one bad person is off the streets, and will never come back. And then it's another thing for victims of crime, who have perhaps lost close ones...

If we still had the Death Penalty now, we wouldn't have half the crime we now have. Criminals just get 'molly coddled' now. They'de think again if they were going to be put to death.

jasminetablen

Because they can.....

bolton dave

IF they actually treated prisoners like prisoners then I wouldn't think much about the death penatly.

Yes, lifers have lost their 'freedom' not always for life though. Certainly not here in the UK anyway. Getting to play on the net, watch TV and any pleasure other than being allowed to still breath is way too lenient. I don't consider this justice or punishment. Their time should be spent doing hard labour and sod their human rights and pleasure. Where was the human rights of their victims?

Did a killer think 'Oh, am I infringing your human rights by sticking this sharp knife in your head?' I don't think so. Life should mean life with no chance of parole unless they have shown considerable remorse, rebhilitation, and their victims relatives agree to it.

Keira

because people who kill people don't deserve to live! i support it 100%

Phil #3

The answer to the question is: revenge. There can be no other reason.
Since 1973, over 120 people have been released from prison because of evidence of their innocence after being falsely accused, tried and condemned for murder. This amounts to one out of every eight people on death row being freed by new, or newly found evidence of their innocence.
Eighty-four percent of former and present presidents of top academic criminologists societies deny that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. Also, the south has had the highest number of murders as well as the highest number of executions.
California's expense in executing it's condemned was $250 million per execution, $114 million more than incarceraton; In North Carolina, it cost $2.14 million more per execution than life imprisonment.
Judging from the high percentage of blacks, per capita, and the extremely low percentage of women to be executed, it is obvious that bias and/or social standing plays a big part in death penalties.
Up until 2002, over 110 have been released due to DNA testing, which provides evidence that many that have been executed were guiltless of the crimes for which they were themselves murdered by society.

steakfri_98

Supporting the death penalty goes back thousands of years. The "just desert" thinking is the way that people deal with the idea that people should be responsible for their actions, rational or irrational, by paying for it with an equal punishment. Have you ever had someone close to you murdered? I have not. If you don't believe in it...there's a reason for it. You also have to realize that if someone goes on Death Row, they have something like 23 appeals they can file. That could keep them in prison for several decades. Now with all the DNA profiling we have, it's not easy to convict someone who didn't do it.

Saphira

People still support the death penalty because for some criminals that is the only worthy punishment. Why should murderers, terrorists, and rapists be allowed to live out their lives in a jail cell? They are being fed, housed, and provided medical care all for free. How is that punishment? These kind of people are plagues on society and should not be allowed to live.

greeneyedevil

Some people need to die to make it easier for other people to live. Whether you feel comfortable making that decision is a matter of your self-esteem, and not that of others. Please do not impose your standards on people, and then ask people why they feel the need to impose their standards on others. This is, at best, logically vague.

monkeymanelvis

Because when you get down to it we (as a species) love to see and think about death.

Sky Boy

I will not support it IF you ensure me NO MORE MURDERS.

ret_roch_cop

I don't because it's not a deterrent. People who are convicted of capital crimes in states with the death penalty drag their cases on for years, then a re gently put to sleep like you'd do for a favored pet who became too ill to survive. I think a natural life sentence at hard labor would be much more appropriate.

MI5

Because currently it is the only way that some societies know of how to stop people from being murderers. Because opinion is divided about this, there will always be backlash so currently we are darned if we do and darned if we don't. The way forward is a revolutionary, yet to be discovered method of prevention and rehabilitation that everyone agrees with. Deterrents like the death penalty evidently don't really work though they do make some people feel better.

badneighborvt

because I don't support the theory that the person who killed my brother should be allowed to continue to live his life, and have my tax money pay for his food, clothes, shelter, medical care end education.

keny

Because they are uncivilised and hypocrites Murder is murder if done by the individual or the state and it was abolished because its been proved not to be a deterrent
some one up there has made my point (they didn`t mean to )if someone takes a life they negate the right to live so what about the people who decided and carried out the execution they put themselves on the level of the person convicted
i agree with BoltonDave

Dicky Snapples Hides Apples

Lobo my lobo

brainyandy

Because years ago it was the ultimate deterrent and it worked. Now that it's been abolished, murder is commonplace. It doesn't take too much thought to realise that it should be reinstated. The only thing I would say is that in this day and age, hanging is a rather primitive form of execution. I would be in favour of a lethal injection.

chillipope

Why not support the death penalty ?

There must be severe penalties for certain crimes - and prison just doesn't cut it. Is it more humane to lock someone up for the rest of their lives without human contact and freedom (they have denied others) or enact a quick death on them instead ?

Eye for an eye, life is about balance and if you tips the scales you have to make up the difference.

etienne primeau

I can only speak for myself, there are no simple cut and dry answers. I have found myself on both sides trying to come to grips with this thought of justification and such. However, Jessica Lundsford was nine years old. She was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a convicted child molester, out on probation. You tell me? Why in the world do people, like you I presume you to be in this group, can't see this: He already spiritually murdered at least one other child, and only God knows the tally he had accumulated. But, this time he raped a 9 year old little girl? Come on she deserved better. Who was there to defend her? Where were and are her advocates pleading for her life, and why are there so many people who defend the murder of the innocent unborn? We could go on, but I will just say that when someone commits a heinious and such a hideous crime that takes life, then their life is forfeited, or it should be.

Etienne Primeau

devils sweetheart

because sickos like saddam hussien dont deserve to live. phedophiles should get the death penalty too infact id quite happily shove a few pedos in the electric chair, or chop sum kiddie fiddlers head off.

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