I Have a Question
On California's Novembers ballot, voters will have the chance to reinstate the Death Penalty that has not been in effect in this particular state for many decades. How would you vote?
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curmudgeon1968 · 56-60, M
Subsumedpat · 36-40, M
So the ends justify the means here, you are ok with killing an innocent person because it is better than keeping people alive who should be killed?
curmudgeon1968 · 56-60, M
Despite what the press tries to claim, the percentage of innocent people killed by the state in the last 40 years is miniscule. But since states that reimplemented the death penalty have drastic reductions in homicides, I will answer your question with an emphatic yes. I would much rather have one innocent person killed by the state than hundreds by the killers on the street.
Subsumedpat · 36-40, M
Since 1973 when the Freeman decision put a halt to all death sentences until after states rewrote their death penalty statutes 144 death row inmates have been exonerated, you are right in saying it is a low percentage given the number we kill that is only 1.6%, I imagine if you were one of the 144 you might feel differently. Also keep in mind that is only the ones who could prove their innocence there will be others who are innocent but can't people it, the estimates for that is 4.1 percent, still a low percentage unless you are one of the 4.1%.
I have no idea where you got the idea the death penalty deters crime there is not a single credible study that shows that despite extensive research by criminalogits.
The alternative to the death penalty is not killers on the street it is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
I have no idea where you got the idea the death penalty deters crime there is not a single credible study that shows that despite extensive research by criminalogits.
The alternative to the death penalty is not killers on the street it is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
curmudgeon1968 · 56-60, M
Where do I get the statistics that violent crime goes down in a state after the death penalty is reinstated? The department of justice, it has shown that several times. The first published under Meese (unsure of spelling), but has been repeated at least twice.
Your argument that life without parole is the answer, it is used in the vast number of cases. And I don't know of a case where it wasn't offered by the prosecution.
I have been the spiritual advisor in the room with a man as the execution was performed. And while it is beyond emotionally gut wrenching, I also can still support it. That one death woke up others who were headed down a similar path. And they didn't end up the same way, and their potential victims didn't end up dead either.
But those people don't fit in the potential 4%, guess they aren't innocent people too.
Your argument that life without parole is the answer, it is used in the vast number of cases. And I don't know of a case where it wasn't offered by the prosecution.
I have been the spiritual advisor in the room with a man as the execution was performed. And while it is beyond emotionally gut wrenching, I also can still support it. That one death woke up others who were headed down a similar path. And they didn't end up the same way, and their potential victims didn't end up dead either.
But those people don't fit in the potential 4%, guess they aren't innocent people too.
Subsumedpat · 36-40, M
@curmudgeon1968: I would love to read one of these reports on death penalty reducing crime if you can ever remember what they are. Meanwhile here is an article with links to peer reviewed academic studies that says it does not. http://jewishworldreview.com/jeff/jacoby083016.php3