Do You Support The Death Penalty?

[HerrKaiser]

The term 'humanity' doesn't just encompass those things within our species that we like--it also includes those things that disturb us or can even destroy us. By recognizing these elements as being real, and acknowledging their perpetrators as human beings rather than folklore-level bogeymen, we can protect ourselves better and cultivate the more enlightened world that progressives and liberals supposedly endorse.

This makes absolutely no sense to me, sorry; not trying to be rude. The death penalty is NOT about bad people who "disturb us or can destroy us". People on death row have ALREADY done the murder. Treating would-be murderers in ways to avoid future crime is a noble and good idea on which millions of dollars are spent every year attempting to accomplish, so if that is what you are getting at, I would agree.

but the notion that somehow we protect ourselves better by treating hardened killers with kid gloves is to me the opposite of enlightened...it's burying one's head in the sand.

I actually am not so much in favor of the death penalty, not because I think those who get it do not deserve it. They do. However, I do not like the effect it has on society in that it continues to validate reasons to take a life, such as with abortion or assisted suicide etc. Instead of killing murderers who deserve to exist in the hottest corner of hell, we should place them in the most uncomfortable sort of prison for life that can be imagined.

Remember, the murder rate was FAR lower when murderers were afraid of the consequences. THEY were enlightened to the fact that if they do horrific crimes, the electric chair or a horrible prison was awaiting them.

[loneleeb3]

Instead of killing murderers who deserve to exist in the hottest corner of hell, we should place them in the most uncomfortable sort of prison for life that can be imagined.

If that would actually happen, I'd be all for it!
I don't like the death penalty but if it's between that and housing murderers and seeing all their needs are met, I vote for the death penalty!

[moremojo]

This society desperately needs its own Beccaria. I wish I could advocate my position as elegantly and intelligently as he; instead, I feel like I'm just talking in circles. I know ultimately we will have to agree to disagree, and hopefully can do so in as respectful a manner as possible.

Let me leave you with this one thought: While anguishing over the cruelties of others, be mindful of the potential cruelty that resides within yourself, and do not let it steer your life into a hell of your own creation. Hate begets hate, and love mirrors love. And it is never inappropriate to respond with love.

[loneleeb3]

Let me leave you with this one thought: While anguishing over the cruelties of others, be mindful of the potential cruelty that resides within yourself, and do not let it steer your life into a hell of your own creation. Hate begets hate, and love mirrors love. And it is never inappropriate to respond with love.

I agree with you.
The onley caveat I have is that love and forgiveness do not negate consequence and Justice.
We still have to face the consequences of our actions regardless if the victim forgives or not.

[serious crayons]

I think morality is a complex subject that benefits most from subtle, nuanced analysis. A view that puts, say, Delalluvia or Lee or souxi, because they support the death penalty, on the same moral level as John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer seems absurdly black-and-white to me.

There are degrees of wrongness. I think the death penalty is wrong. But I don't think people who favor killing those who have committed terrible crimes -- as vengeance, as punishment, as deterrent, out of an unwillingness to pay for their support -- are just AS wrong as those who actually commit the terrible crimes.

There seems to be a perennial human impulse to scapegoat people, render them less than human, and treat them accordingly. In Nero's Rome, it was the Christians; in late Ottoman Turkey, it was the Armenians; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jews. At this contemporary juncture of history, people deemed to be "terrorists" or "pedophiles" are especially vulnerable to this kind of treatment.

The crucial difference is that we're not talking about people deemed to be something they are not, as scapegoats are. We're talking about people who actually ARE terrorists or murderers. Again, I don't in any way condone their being executed. But let's be clear about who they are.

[Mikaela]

I voted the closest available option for my view, so I voted "no".

But what I really would have liked to have voted, is:

NO!!!

That there is such a wide-spread acceptance and support - indifference at best -  for the death penalty in the US astounds, depresses and discourages me. I can't understand it. In my view it's inhumane, cruel, unethical, open to errors that can never be redressed....it devalues human lives. It dehumanizes whoever sentences someone to death or carries out the sentence.   Luckily, where I live the death penalty is so far off the political map that I can't conceive of it ever being discussed even as a remote possibility.

[moremojo]

Mikaela, the spirit of Beccaria has found voice through you.

[David In Indy]

Thanks to everyone who has participated in this poll thus far. I find everyones comments very interesting and valid.

I'm especially pleased so many of our Euro and other non American Brokies have weighed in on the subject. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I think it's very interesting and important to learn of everybody's opinions on the death penalty regardless of whether or not they live in the United States.

Let's also remember to respect each person's opinion, even though these opinions may differ greatly from our own. Capital punishment is a hot topic in the US, and emotions often run high when it's discussed. I appreciate everyone remaining civil and friendly as it is being debated. I hope this will continue. I do not support the death penalty, but this doesn't mean I can't appreciate and even learn from those people who support it. I think we all have valid reasons for feeling the way we do. Those who support the death penalty feel strongly for the victim and his or her family. Those of us who oppose the death penalty also feel for the victim and the family, but we also believe two wrongs do not make a right. Both groups show a very high level of compassion.

The people I REALLY worry about are those who simply don't care one way or the other.  

[HerrKaiser]

Beccaria had no conception of the types of crimes our current society is dealing with. Death penalites and torture that he addressed were metted out for stealing bread, not going to church and other minor infractions that we do not even consider infractions today. I think if he had a view of our current crime and so-called justice system, his opinions would be quite different than those expressed over 200 years ago.

The idea that "love mirrors love.." is a philospophy of hope that may prevail in reality for raising children in stable homes, but has not proven to be a very good guardian of personal safety on the street where most crime is commited and for which society and victims feel punishment is appropriate. My Jewish relatives thought being passive would save them and they were slaughtered. The crime victims who are mercilessly gunned down in spite of begging for their lives presented no hate. Sharon Tate did not spew hate. The list goes on for decades.

[HerrKaiser]

I voted the closest available option for my view, so I voted "no".

But what I really would have liked to have voted, is:

NO!!!

That there is such a wide-spread acceptance and support - indifference at best -  for the death penalty in the US astounds, depresses and discourages me. I can't understand it. In my view it's inhumane, cruel, unethical, open to errors that can never be redressed....it devalues human lives. It dehumanizes whoever sentences someone to death or carries out the sentence.   Luckily, where I live the death penalty is so far off the political map that I can't conceive of it ever being discussed even as a remote possibility.

Interestingly, all these points are used frequently by anti-abortion proponents. I wonder if the strong feelings here against capital punishment also align behind the pro-life people?