Dr. Mama Cat. (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 01/24/09 | Reply
I'm in favor of it, but only for the more extreme cases. It is, as SomeGuy pointed out, vastly more costly. However, for those truly extreme cases I can see that penalty being warranted. Otherwise, it's better to give them life without parole.
From an ethical standpoint, it's certainly true that several cases have come up where people executed for crimes are later found to be innocent years later (especially with the advances in DNA/forensic methods). When someone's dead, it's kinda hard to say "oops, sorry".
From a pragmatic standpoint . . . I think the most messed up thing about the capital punish question is that time and again it's been shown that executing a convicted criminal is actually more costly than imprisoning them for life without parole. It's kinda messed up, but the decade or two (or three) on death row in conjunction with both generally higher costs for capital trials as well as costs for the convict's several appeals (should he or she pursue them) ends up being a whole lot more money on the taxpayers and such.
Curiously, though, I've no serious qualms with the general idea of capital punishment and oftentimes through the year I've never felt wronged about publicized cases involving such.
But hey, my country's already abolished the death penalty and it's not likely for it to come back any time soon. So hey, I'm fine with that too.
I saw that thread. As much as I want to disagree with using the death penalty, there are some people who I feel it is warranted for. I'm talking about extreme cases like serial killers. As horrible as it sounds, you know if they get back out there, they'll kill again. -_- It makes me sad to say that though.
Selene Shri
Grand Otaku | Posted 01/26/09 | Reply
oO I'm not sure. I don't really understand how that works. ^^ I don't understand why people do really mean things either.
-Sarah
Indi
Dr. Mama Cat. (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 01/24/09 | Reply
I'm in favor of it, but only for the more extreme cases. It is, as SomeGuy pointed out, vastly more costly. However, for those truly extreme cases I can see that penalty being warranted. Otherwise, it's better to give them life without parole.
~Crystia
SomeGuy
Canadian Liaison (Team) | Posted 01/24/09 | Reply
From an ethical standpoint, it's certainly true that several cases have come up where people executed for crimes are later found to be innocent years later (especially with the advances in DNA/forensic methods). When someone's dead, it's kinda hard to say "oops, sorry".
From a pragmatic standpoint . . . I think the most messed up thing about the capital punish question is that time and again it's been shown that executing a convicted criminal is actually more costly than imprisoning them for life without parole. It's kinda messed up, but the decade or two (or three) on death row in conjunction with both generally higher costs for capital trials as well as costs for the convict's several appeals (should he or she pursue them) ends up being a whole lot more money on the taxpayers and such.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070508083314AAeW0lM
Curiously, though, I've no serious qualms with the general idea of capital punishment and oftentimes through the year I've never felt wronged about publicized cases involving such.
But hey, my country's already abolished the death penalty and it's not likely for it to come back any time soon. So hey, I'm fine with that too.
Sabrina
Otaku Archangel | Posted 01/24/09 | Reply
I saw that thread. As much as I want to disagree with using the death penalty, there are some people who I feel it is warranted for. I'm talking about extreme cases like serial killers. As horrible as it sounds, you know if they get back out there, they'll kill again. -_- It makes me sad to say that though.
-Sabrina