On the serious side though, one of my Uncles was beaten to death by a baseball bat and then his killer got free because some jackass lawyer managed to get him off. For him, I think that the fear of knowing that anyone in our family would kill him without thinking twice is a little bit of punishment, but I think the whole “Underground Prison” is a nice punishment, but I think it should be even harder on the prisoners, such as a max of 5 hours of sleep each night, 2 skimpy meals, so on.
here’s the solution… tie down all the deathrow guys and have people pay to come and hit them with sticks or pointy rocks… 5$ gets you 15 minutes or something (the victims’ familys would get free beating time of course) that way
the bastards suffer
the family gets to let out some angst
money is produced to go into the system
and
people with anger management problems can let out their rage in a safe and accomodating environment
heck, you could rent out he prison to anger managment classes or road rage seminars or something… make a little more cash, all proceeds could go to the victims familys… or to me, because i thought of it…
I’m pretty much with the majority here. Once I learned about the cost of imprisionment vs exicution, I couldn’t be for the death penalty.
A couple of things though.
A) the fact is that there are more crimes in the states with the death penalty than in those without… but do not fail to forget that the cause and effect are reversed. The truth of this is that the states with the highest crime rates are more likely to vote “yes” on the death penalty. Stated like that " there’s more crime in states with, than without", makes it seem like the crime is caused by the institution of the policy… where as it is the other way around.
B) there is a misnomer that people on death row are sitting around watching cable, or getting educated by our tax dollars. I thought so too, but this is not the case. There may be some prisons where this occurs, but not in the majority.
A high security prison will allow it’s prisoners to PURCHACE objects from a comissary, using money from donations of loved ones. The prices are also inflated, as they are in any other comissary situation.
If someone has an example of a tax funded (high security) institute which provides a tv and cable line to each of their prisoners, I’d love to hear of it. So far, I can’t find one that does.
Im against the death penalty, but then i live in England and it seems absolutetely barbaric to lots of people here.
The main reason i oppose it, is that there’s no going back, plus imprisonment for life is probably just as bad.
I think that all the people in prison who are just petty thieves and such should do community service, so they can work for thier stay in jail. This would save money, and make it better for the prisoners.
Hey Law,
Do they have the petty criminals in England do stuff such as clean the roads, etc.? I think here, many petty criminals get to wear a cool Aber/Fitch Orange Jumpsuit and clean up the sides of roads and parks =)
Unfortunately, death does not deter criminals from commiting crime. One needs to, I guess, find a more harsh punishment (short of torture…maybe) that actually causes criminals to fear going to jail.
(Just a side note) In China, where the death penalty is in effect; the organs of those who are executed under the death penalty are “harvested” and donated to hospitals. (Guess murderers are actually doing some good for once)
The point of no-return is a really good one, and I think Phil stated it most completely so far, noting that (numbers) of reversed convictions have let the innocent ones go free…some just short of theBig day.
NationWide I believe these numbers are in the hundreds. This is shocking when one thinks about all the possible thousands in our history that have been wrongfully executed because they didn’t have the benefit of forensic re-examination of evidence ‘back when’.
Furthermore - more than forensic evidence can go awry, very often disallowed (technicallity~rules of court) evidence or withheld info/evidence can cause an undeserved conviction to happen and the possibility of overturning such a verdict later is non existant when the guy is dead.
…You can’t take back ill treatment either after a new conclusion gets them off the hook…
If anybody thinks we can treat only the Really Guilty ones one way and the we’re not so sure/so-so ones another you better think again … if we’re so good at determinig that in the first place, we wouldn’t even have this debate.
The rumors about Prison being not so bad are greatly exagerated and even tho there are some that can hack it - it certainly isn’t the norm.
Humanitarian treatment of prisoners is a moral imperative
I had a good idea… See if someone gets put in jail and they’re really rich then they can pay to have a nicer cell. (mabey for like 1000$ a month for clean carpet… etc.) that way the government makes money.
What are your opinions on this?
I say it is fair only if there is definitive DNA evidence. Otherwise, life in prison for any type of intentional murder.
It’s like giving the criminal the easy way out as apposed to giving them their entire life to think about what they had done and hopefully at least come to peace with themselves.
*Originally posted by upuaut *
**I’m with rev. The cost of killing someone in this country is more expensive than life imprisonment. It makes no sense to continue the practice. **
I have heard arguments about the cost from both sides, so from a money (tax-payer) POV i’m not convinced either way.
It is my opinion that some people just deserve to die. The guy sitting in death-row that raped and murder 7 women deserves to die. The man that killed an entire family deserves to die. The woman who drowned her 6 children in the bathtub deserves to die.
Its more expensive to put a prisoner to death then have him in prison for life.
The crime rates are higher in states and countries with the death penalty…
!!!
