What do you think of death penalty? I think it's a good method to put off unrecoverable criminals. I'd apply it for recidivious criminal,independently by the crime committed. and you?
First, the notion that people should get executed for repeatedly committing petty crimes is utterly preposterous. He stole $100 for the third time? Shoot the bastard! Second, the death penalty does not seem to have much of a deterring effect. Third, jurisdiction and justice do not necessarily overlap, mistakes happen. Advocating the death penalty implies being fine with some innocent people being executed. Fourth, Guatemala is the first country which has recently spoken a sentence against a former head of state genocide (in the country in which it occurred. Once we have justice systems in which the real criminals, i.e. people with political/economic power and thousands of bodies on them, get punished we can talk again about capital punishment.
Right or wrong is immaterial. Sooner or later you WILL execute an innocent person and there can be no justification for that.
Not quite sure what you mean, but for the record I am not in favour of execution on moral grounds - although some cases do challenge my resolve. The argument that no right thinking person could sanction a system that will inevitably execute the innocent stands.
Not sure if that is a valid argument against death penalty. It can be re-worded. Does that mean prisons are wrong because there MIGHT be a chance an innocent person gets into jail for - maybe - 30 years until it becomes clear was was innocent? An innocent person might get sent to jail and DIE before a new technique (like DNA tests) proves his innocence.
I used to be for it, now I'm not. Though I still kind of feel there are some people bad enough they don't deserve the same right to live as the rest of us, in the United States is is applied so unfairly and with so much chance of injustice it is unsupportable. The only real use I can see for it now is for people who murder someone in prison while they are already serving a life sentence.
I hate the fact that some innocent people are incarcerated -- I think we have to work hard to avoid it -- but it still isn't the absolute of killing an innocent person. An innocent person unjustly imprisoned still has a possibility of eventually being vindicated and released.
There are cases of people getting released after DECADES. Your life is pretty much ruined then. Some even died in prison even though they were innocent. Death candidates wait several decades as well for their execution.
My position is a little more nuanced than most. I'm not against the death penalty, but I am against its routine application. Generally speaking, the more forethought, ie: premeditation, that goes into the crime, the greater the likliehood that the death penalty will serve as a deterent. Hire a hit man, go on a spree racking up bodies hither and yon, suit up with body armor and shoot up a theater, you ought to die. I also believe that the standard should be not just beyond reasonable doubt, but beyond any doubt. There are also folks who should be given actual life sentances as in not merely locking them up and throwing away the proverbial key, but as in welding the cell door shut. My position will probably never prevail since it doesn't fit into either the liberal or conservative boxes, but I believe it to be the most defensable.