Author Topic: Do You Support The Death Penalty?  (Read 166257 times)

moremojo

  • Guest
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #30 on: October 02, 2007, 04:55:39 pm »
Janice, I think your post naturally segues into the question: Is killing ever justified, or necessary? I think the dark truth for the vast majority of us is...Yes, at least sometimes. A truly defensive war is one example that comes quickly to mind. Imagine if the world had not stood up to Hitler and his insanely cruel rush to dominate humanity. That kind of evil had to be met with the only kind of power a man like Hitler understood and respected: brute force. I also imagine how a non-violent pacifist such as myself would respond in the moment to being mugged or violated in some way...although it would go against my better nature, I could imagine the animal inside of me springing to life and fighting in panic for safety, even perhaps to the point of death. I think those among us who truly submit to their ideals even at the expense of their own lives are those that we call saints.

I still see an important distinction between these examples and willfully, premeditatedly killing a person in the name of the state. The state has a responsibility to its citizens, and one responsibility is setting an example for a nobler life. A truly enlightened society will foster life and dissuade from violence, and execution is ultimately always needless and preventable violence.

Offline dot-matrix

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 9,865
  • www.maleimagegallery.com ~Come Join Us~
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #31 on: October 02, 2007, 11:06:52 pm »
        Well here I am on the opposite side of the fence again.  Oh well here I go. 
     I think sometimes we need to thin the heard as I have  heard it said.  We have these horrible
mean and grewsome people.  The kind like Charles Manson, John Wayne Gayce, and others of their kind that are in the society.  If we just put them in prison for life.  They are still a dredge on the society.  They are often given conjugal rights, begat children who are then placed on the rolls of the state, and may then carry on the legacy of an unfortunate life.
     We had such a case here in oregon. A man that was the son of a man on death row, killed and tortured several young teenaged girls...He deserves to die..in my opinion..He was so cold blooded that he murdered one young girl, and put her in a small refrigerator in his kitchen, and continued to make meals, and have friends over just the same as nothing was amiss.  He then took her out and put her in a cardboard box in the back corner of his lot, and left her there with the rest of his garbage to be burned. 
      I dont feel that ridding society of those types of people...Is cruel or barbaric.  I think it is plain good sense.  You dont rehabilitate that kind of behavior from a person..In spite of all the forward movements in helping folks with mental issues.
      I dont think it should be used very often, and not routinely for sure.....I think there are very few people that fit into these kinds of territory.  But if we do find them...Like the Greenriver Killer..He murdered over 40 young women.
We should give them no quarter..They deserve the same choices they gave their victims...
      Ok im done...except to say...I used to be on the other side.  When I was younger I didnt think it was good to have a death penalty...However time has shown me, in some unique cases its required.


well you are not totally alone Janice, some of the points you raise are some of the very concerns that keep me on the fence  :-\
Life is not a dress rehearsal

Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #32 on: October 03, 2007, 05:48:54 am »
Of course not.

Offline Kerry

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • BetterMost Moderator
  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 7,076
  • ^ In pursuit of Captain Moonlite - 5 Sept 2009
    • Google Profile
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #33 on: October 03, 2007, 09:23:55 am »

We don't have the death penalty here in Australia. I am not in favour of the death penalty myself.

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

However, having said that, I'm not sure how I'd react if a loved one of mine was abducted, imprisoned, tortured, murdered, cannibalised and had their body parts used as trophies by a serial killer (which is what Jeffrey Dahmer did to his victims).

γνῶθι σεαυτόν

moremojo

  • Guest
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #34 on: October 03, 2007, 10:03:23 am »
This is gonna sound weird to a lot of people, but the victims of a serial killer are, according to my belief, in a place of peace and love, however horrific the gateway to that place proved to be. The killer was terribly wrong to have acted as he did (he erred against Love), but the One Who IS takes care of all His children.

The killer is still here with the rest of us upon this compromised earth. However hateful he is, however difficult it is to do so, he is as deserving of love as the rest of us. If we can find it in our hearts to embrace the Dahmers and Gacys among us, we are expressing a spiritual gift of the very highest order. We reveal the angels clothed within our human skins.

By killing the Dahmers and Gacys in vengeance, we too err against Love, against the One Who IS. And we will have to account for our actions in the fullness of Eternity.

moremojo

  • Guest
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #35 on: October 05, 2007, 11:20:34 am »
Your sentiment is understandable, Susie, and many would share it (I intimated a similar capacity within myself in this thread, in regard to being victimized myself [I am not a parent]). But at the risk of seeming facetious or unfeeling, I think it's important to be consistent on these things. Remember, the people who were the victims of the murderer on death row (the person whose life you and I claim to seek to preserve) were someone else's children.

I am not a Christian, but I think that Jesus showed by his example that it is better to be killed than it is to kill.

Offline Rayn

  • Brokeback Got Me Good
  • *****
  • Posts: 520
  • I'm also on FaceBook under Rayn Roberts
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #36 on: October 08, 2007, 12:37:01 pm »
As a Christian, I didn't support it because I was taught to "Love your enemies."   Currently, though I don't make a very good one, I'm trying to follow the teachings of Buddha too; so I follow a Unitarian Universalist path and cannot support the Death Penalty.

Offline Karan13

  • Sr. Ranch Hand
  • ***
  • Posts: 78
  • Fun loving open minded the future Mrs Depp or Gyll
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #37 on: October 18, 2007, 05:26:43 pm »
Hey There,
               I must admit i support the Death Penalty , as you know i`m in Birmingham {second city } England , and we do not have the death penalty  at all . I was bought up in the Catholic Faith and when old enough found ` My Own Beliefs` to cion a phrase a don`t hate or turn against my faith but i have free will and question parts of it ` Thou Shall Not Kill ` is one of the ten commandments , but i disagree.
If a human being has caused such hurt , suffering , mental , physical torture , is beyond reason and empathy has killed again and again then they cannot be rehabilatated and should have their life taken for the lives they have destroyed.
I do add that this should be carried out in the most serious of crimes , especialy those occured on numerous occasions. Many child sexual abusers admit if released they will re offend , they have been released and placed back in society usually close to schools , and not always , but on numerous occasions re offended , parents live in fear as they hear rumours that they are in the area , but these people cannot be named. The victim can but not the abuser, this i hate and dissagree with. If i lived in a place where i knew people were being executed i don`t know where i would stand , but as it is i think our country needs it . The prisons are dangerously overcrowded and i feel stupid old fat cat judges in their wigs , with their old fashioned ways make the victims the guilty party, and release known crimminals back into society as they don`t know where to put them , or cannot `Find` anywhere  to put them it is a joke .
It`s not the breaths you take , it`s what makes you lose one !

Offline ifyoucantfixit

  • BetterMost 5000+ Posts Club
  • *******
  • Posts: 8,049
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #38 on: October 18, 2007, 06:02:30 pm »



        I must clarify my position..   I dont hate these people.  As Shasta said, I have no emotional feelings toward
them whatsoever.  I dont think we should do it as a form of vengeance..I dont believe in vengeance. 
        I think we need to do it for the reasons of safety, and care for individuals and society as a whole.  There
are actually people that are so tainted and polluted in themselves, that there is no chance for rehabilitation orfor
them doing anything of benefit for society.  They are, and i realize this is a bad simili, a bad apple...They need
to be gotten rid of so they wont spoil* the bunch any longer...
        One thing I am not, is vindictive.  I dont believe I have ever done a vindictive thing in my life...But you
know; if one of these people that had been allowed to return to society, would then hurt the ones I love.
I would probably do it for the first time.  If i had the chance...I am sorry I am not angelec enough for that...
If that makes me a barbarian, then I will own it...




     Beautiful mind

Offline serious crayons

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: Do You Support The Death Penalty?
« Reply #39 on: October 18, 2007, 06:52:19 pm »
I would feel perfectly justified in killing someone who is an immediate threat to my own life or the lives of others -- for example, someone attacking my children. I also think it's OK to kill someone who's helping to kill others -- for example, not only someone who is sending Jews to death camps, but also someone fighting on behalf of someone who's sending Jews to death camps. Some wars -- not all, obviously -- are necessary, in my book.

But those are the only times I feel killing is OK.

I would like to think that, on principle, I would oppose the death penalty even for someone who had killed a loved one of mine. But perhaps I wouldn't. That's human nature. We're influenced by our emotions. But sometimes the purpose of laws is to control emotions and the baser impulses of human nature.

What about people who seem irredeemably evil? Put them away forever, I guess. It's not our job to kill them. Killing is wrong whether it's done by John Wayne Gacy or the state of Texas.