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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Poll - Should the United States abolish the death penalty?
Ok I'm bored and this board is really slow...
What do you think about the death penalty?
Should we get rid of it?
Costs? It takes YEARS and YEARS to have someone executed, should they just stay in jail?
IUI#1 = 09/10 - Canceled - Dx w/POF
DE IVF #1= 04/11 - BFP
DE IVF #1= 04/11 - BFP
Re: Poll - Should the United States abolish the death penalty?
I'll bite.
What do you think about the death penalty? I'm not sure. I think it hurts the innocent and it wastes a lot of time and money.
Should we get rid of it? I would like to see the ramifications of getting rid of it. I know other developed countries that do not have it.
Costs? It takes YEARS and YEARS to have someone executed, should they just stay in jail? That's what I am wondering. Besides, I would think that keeping someone in jail forever is more of a punishment than killing them. The few articles that I have read by prisoners is that prison is boring. You have a lot of free time on your hands and not a lot to do but think.
Yes
I'm not really opposed to it morally, but the system is so flawed and prone to mistakes and it costs so much money to keep funding appeals, etc. I'd rather see us focus on creating a more fair system for everyone rather than focusing all our attention on the extremes that a few experience. There are so many people wrongfully convicted of less serious offenses, but advocates spend so much time worrying about the wrongfully convicted death sentence cases (and the prosecutors and judges spend so much defending those cases and reviewing them) that we never have time to look at lesser offenders, that may have been just as wrongfully convicted.
DE IVF #1= 04/11 - BFP
My views are very similar to kathryns. I worked as an intern at the public defenders office in baltimore in college and helped with a death penalty case that drastically changed my views. Too long for here, but basically over 100 people have been put to death, that afterwards were cleared of the crime by DNA (these cases and sentences were carried out before DNA testing was introduced into the legal system), this is at the heart of my issue with the death penalty.
Yes, it should be abolished.
It's more expensive to put someone to death than it is to keep them in jail for life.
It's not at all an effective deterrent to crime.
You don't teach that killing is wrong by killing someone.
The application of the death penalty in this country is racist and sexist.
As long as the death penalty exists innocent people will be executed.
Simple and to the point!
exactly
I agree. Plus I think it's a worse punishment to have someone locked up in jail for the rest of their life.
Someone's getting a little brother!
I'm not morally opposed to idea of a death penalty, but I don't believe that it's working so I can see not having it at all.
When my friend was murdered last year in Baltimore, it did cause me to think more about the death penalty. My friend's family and friends would never see him again, he would never get to achieve the things he so wanted to do, he would never see the sunshine, or tell a joke, or eat his favorite meal. It hurts me to think that his killers still get to see the sunshine, still get to communicate to family to some extent, etc. Why should a murdered be allowed to talk to family or friends when we can't? I believe in the justice system but I also know that it isn't perfect. I don't think that someone who murders should ever get out of jail, provided that they are guilty and found of sound mind. I agree with what daisy said and the death penalty doesn't seem to be working. I just wish that if you take away a life, your life in terms of the privileges that you get would end too. I don't think I really took the time to think about things in this way until it hit me personally. Mainly I just want to see him never released and to have his time in prison be as strict as possible.
Absolutely. Even if you think that some people absolutely deserve to die - the Petit family's murderers are the prime example du jour, even if you set aside the argument that it inevitably results in the killing of innocent people, or the argument that it's a poor deterrent, or the argument that it's not an acceptable act in a civilized society - the simple fact remains that the death penalty shifts the focus from the victims to the accused, makes "causes" out of murderers, and always, ALWAYS results in the sort of cat and mouse appeal process that both makes a mockery of our system and leaves the real crime upon which it's all based in the forgotten dust. And all at a morbidly exorbitant cost.
On top of all of this, I'll add my humble opinion that anyone that "deserves" the death penalty is probably getting off easy with that punishment. And that if you're pro-death penalty you should be willing to administer the death blow yourself. If you aren't willing to pay the karmic price of that political belief, if you're only willing to support it when some unseen person is burdenerd with flipping the switch, then you haven't fully thought through the implications of your position.
All of this might seem a little cold in light of recent events. It certainly feels a little cold to write. But I think it's important to realize that the argument against the death penalty can be pretty damned bullet proof even if you're a bit of a hard a55 about these things.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
I agree with this.
Ditto on all counts- except the cost factor doesn't matter to me, more or less expensive, I don't care. And to anyone who might argue that I would feel differently if it happened to someone who I love- my uncle, my dad's twin brother, was murdered. Doesn't change my viewpoint. I believe in harsh punishments and I firmly believe that certain convictions should automatically carry mandatory life without parole sentences, but not capital punishment.
Carrying a death penalty case costs far more than paying for a convict's life in prison. The numbers are all over the place on how much more - but pretty much everyone is in agreement that it's more. "Death is different."
I more than agree with PP that cost shouldn't be anything like the deciding factor - either it's right or it's not and you deal with the price. It just becomes an absurd sort of clincher when you run through the rationale against.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
Yes, I think we should abolish it.
I think wanting someone to die who did something horrific to someone you know (like what Link described) can be a natural response. Not saying that all victims' families are going to go out and start killing people and that everyone will react the same way, but if someone tortured and killed my husband, yeah, I'd want that person dead. To me, that's a human reaction, and it's based on a pure emotional response, and I don't think the law should be based on emotional responses like that.
I also agree with all Daisy's points, but the biggest one to me is just that it.doesn't work. It's not a deterrent. So what is the point really? Vengeance? If it was an effective deterrent I think I'd still be opposed to it but I could see the other side better.
I also agree with Rags in how it makes "causes" out of the murderers. The Troy Davis is a good example. I'm not entirely sure he was innocent. He very well may have done it. But it definitely seemed like the evidence used to convince him had significantly weakene with time, and that there was some shady behavior on the part of the Savannah police (showing his picture to people before the lineup, etc). So it casts enough doubt on the matter that you take this person, who may have done it, and it makes him into a cause, someone that people rally around, etc. So I think then it kind of turns the whole point around and can make the victims family look bad, which is just.........kind of absurd, in my opinion.
I just think no one comes out the winner when the state executes someone. It makes me really sad.
Oh and finally, I agree with rags' other point that in some ways its letting them off easy. I always thought that the DP was too easy for McVeigh. For some people, life is worse.