05-16-2013, 01:17 PM
It's ok 
It's not a deterrent. I don't think the death penalty will ever be a deterrent. It's not even a deterrent in countries who execute more than the US.
It's not cheap, because of the implementation. We use it as a addendum to the current system, and the current system isn't cheap. Adding more cost on top of that isn't helping. Allowing people to sit on Death Row for 20+ years isn't helping. This can be changed.
Who is to decide that? Well, the obvious answer in the US, is a jury of your peers. But as we've seen, things happen. people are wrongfully convicted. It happens. Which is why I feel that it should only be an option in situations where guilt or innocence is of no question, and the crime is a downright depraved thing.
I don't share the opinions of some. I don't have a problem with a government holding the power to execute. But I don't hold the fear that our government is turning into some monster either. I think that there are some intensely questionable politicians that end up elected, but I have yet to see it happen en mass enough that we are at the point where we are going to become some uber conservative religious theocracy driven representative republic thing that takes steps backwards from where we are currently.
I'm more interested in ending Selective Service and the Draft than I am the Death Penalty. To me, I have more of a problem with the country holding the power to draft people into the military and send them off to die for a cause that may or may not be right, than I do executed a man who went on a mass murder spree, or raped and killed an infant, or whatever.
It's all about the prioritization that people have for things. Fixing the judicial system, and it's flaws is just not as "big of a deal" (it's still a wish/hope/desire, but not as high on the list) as other things.
Maybe it's my own naivety, Maybe it's my belief that 300 million people will in the end have enough people to balance each other out. Maybe it's my belief that we are headed to a better time politically, and ideologically.
Maybe my opinion on the Death Penatly will change the way that my opinion on Gun Control has. Maybe it wont.
It's not a deterrent. I don't think the death penalty will ever be a deterrent. It's not even a deterrent in countries who execute more than the US.
It's not cheap, because of the implementation. We use it as a addendum to the current system, and the current system isn't cheap. Adding more cost on top of that isn't helping. Allowing people to sit on Death Row for 20+ years isn't helping. This can be changed.
Who is to decide that? Well, the obvious answer in the US, is a jury of your peers. But as we've seen, things happen. people are wrongfully convicted. It happens. Which is why I feel that it should only be an option in situations where guilt or innocence is of no question, and the crime is a downright depraved thing.
I don't share the opinions of some. I don't have a problem with a government holding the power to execute. But I don't hold the fear that our government is turning into some monster either. I think that there are some intensely questionable politicians that end up elected, but I have yet to see it happen en mass enough that we are at the point where we are going to become some uber conservative religious theocracy driven representative republic thing that takes steps backwards from where we are currently.
I'm more interested in ending Selective Service and the Draft than I am the Death Penalty. To me, I have more of a problem with the country holding the power to draft people into the military and send them off to die for a cause that may or may not be right, than I do executed a man who went on a mass murder spree, or raped and killed an infant, or whatever.
It's all about the prioritization that people have for things. Fixing the judicial system, and it's flaws is just not as "big of a deal" (it's still a wish/hope/desire, but not as high on the list) as other things.
Maybe it's my own naivety, Maybe it's my belief that 300 million people will in the end have enough people to balance each other out. Maybe it's my belief that we are headed to a better time politically, and ideologically.
Maybe my opinion on the Death Penatly will change the way that my opinion on Gun Control has. Maybe it wont.
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright