The United States is actually the only democracy left in the world with the death penalty. Pretty sad, that.
The US was first formed as a constitutional republic, and that has never been changed by constitutional amendment. That the US is a democracy (the majority rules by 51 percent of the vote) is now the constant clamor of the mindless in conformity to what has been wrongly put forward as truth in this world.
Pretty sad, that.
The Constitution of the United States of America was put in place by those who formed this country to protect the minority against the depredations of the 51 percent who are so easily led in lockstep to change the foundations of this country. No human system is perfect, but until comparatively recently, it has worked better than all other large systems in the world, raising the jealosies of those who would want to cover their own inadequacies by bring our system down, in typical human fashion. Many of those are now our own domestic enemies.
Where is the contradiction in capital punishment for a capital crime? A person who commits a capital crime "votes" for the death of another person, or for another capital wrong against that other person or persons. He could democratically vote the other way: no wrong to the other person. It's his choice. It's not like he is being forced into it, which seems to be the unconscious drift of the opponents to capital punishment.
But, even so, in the spirit of compromise, what the US needs is a "rescue the criminals" program, similar in idea to the save the animals movements, whereby the 51 percenters who want to see condemned murders put up in prisons, for the 50 or so years of the remainder of their lives, can organize and pay for the incarceration of those murderers, instead of jamming the costs of incarceration down the throats of the minority of us who don't want to pay the $50,000 per year incarceration costs per murderer. They can set up the prisons and hire the guards and thereby show to the world their superiority of compassionateness, instead of expecting everybody else to pay for it.
I think in the spirit of compromise, that would be a just solution to the problem of people's feelings for murderers.
As for foreigners who don't like capital punsihment in America, they can join in and make contributions to the program as well, instead of sitting in their own countries, which are full of their own ills, pontificating about what should go on here.
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ghz123-1
16 years ago
geoh7777 it cost more money to execute a prisoner than to have them committed for life
2. do you know how many people have been saved by the innocence project? People who charge and convicted and then later determined to be innocent .
3. the system is broke and innocent persons have been executed for crimes they have not committed.
4. Far more persons of color are given the death penalty for the same or simalar crimes as than those who are white. the system isn't fair thats why we should eliminate the death penalty.
5. lastly gandhi said "an eye for eye makes the whole world blind"
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Jimmel
16 years ago
"2. do you know how many people have been saved by the innocence project? People who charge and convicted and then later determined to be innocent."
Where are you digging up these groundless statistics?"
"3. the system is broke and innocent persons have been executed for crimes they have not committed."
Please enlighten us and list the names of these "innocent" persons who have been wrongfully executed.
"4. Far more persons of color are given the death penalty for the same or simalar crimes as than those who are white. the system isn't fair thats why we should eliminate the death penalty."
If this is "racism" than the entire justice system suffers the same "racism" because the entire prison population is also disproportionately made up of "persons of color". Therefore, if you believe that "we should eliminate the death penalty" because of this "flaw" than you must also believe that we should eliminate the prison system as well. Otherwise, you would be inconsistent.
So, according to you, I guess we should turn as many of these convicted criminals loose on our streets to prey on innocent people in order to equal the ratio you want and put aside the logic that would tell us this is a bad idea. Right?
"5. lastly gandhi said "an eye for eye makes the whole world blind""
Theodore Roosevelt said "I personally have always voted for the death penalty because I believe that people who go out prepared to take the lives of other people forfeit their own right to live. I believe that that death penalty should be used only very rarely, but I believe that no-one should go out certain that no matter how cruel, how vicious, how hideous their murder, they themselves will not suffer the death penalty."
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Yorick_Brown
15 years ago
Roosevelt was a great man but that's only his opinion and a foolish one at that.
Who are we to decide who lives and who dies once that murderer has already been captured and can't hurt society? We're just as bad then.
Hey j-j-jaded
You got your mama's style but you're yesterday's child to me
So jaded
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inko8
15 years ago
...once that murderer has already been captured and can't hurt society?
of course that is the best-- that only guilty violent criminals are incarcerated and that they never are released-- but have you any idea how short a sentence can be for rape?-- these men get released on parole even when their sentences are long, for murder, rape, or any combination thereof.
give us these 3 things, and i bet no one would support the death penalty:1. prison reform with tight supervision to end prison rape, &c.
2. life without parole for first-time violent offenders
3. work release for all nonviolent offenders
if you want people to back off capital punishment, you need to bring something to the table. unfortunately, the prison system, esp. in the state of california, has a vested financial interest in maintaining the status quo. it would not surprise me to learn that this is the case in all fifty states.
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