April 30, 201412 yr More and more I see capital punishment as a form of vengeance' date=' not justice. The two threads on this subject support this.[/quote'] Agree and one of the reasons I am against it.
April 30, 201412 yr Agree and one of the reasons I am against it. Over the years, I have changed my position about it as well.
April 30, 201412 yr Same here... Me too. Used to be a big supporter of it, even supported it for the most violent types of rape. After a while I started to question whether it really is a deterrent for future murder. I came to the conclusion that the possibility of execution is probably the last thing going through a murderers mind, even the possibility of being arrested probably isn't either. After looking at myself, I then had to admit that for me, it was more about revenge than justice so I gradually changed my view.
April 30, 201412 yr Short of having a video of the crime how can you be 100%? There's a reason the legal standard for conviction is "beyond a reasonable doubt" and not "beyond the shadow of a doubt." It's essentially impossible to be one hundred percent sure. Though in some states there is a movement to move the standard in capital punishment cases to the latter in order to make it more difficult.
April 30, 201412 yr Agree and one of the reasons I am against it. It's barbaric, terribly expensive, easily susceptible to human error, and there's no evidence for it's being a deterrent to others.
April 30, 201412 yr Here's a post of mine from another thread recently....You okay with those odds? As of 1/1/14, there had been 1,348 executions in the United States since the death penalty started being used. There have also been 130 death row inmates released due to subsequent evidence proving their innocence. That's nearly 1 of every 10. JMO, but a 90% accuracy rate is about 9.999% too low. If we want to look at it another way, the death penalty was 1st used in the late 1970s...Roughly 40 years. That averages out to roughly 3 people sentenced to die each year that are subsequently found to be innocent. The ten percent is kind of misleading, the percent exonerated vs the entire population on death row since the return in 1970 would be a more meaningful ratio. That ratio would come way, way down but it could then be applied to the number executed to get a meaningful number.
April 30, 201412 yr It's barbaric, terribly expensive, easily susceptible to human error, and there's no evidence for it's being a deterrent to others. And I still can't figure out how so many can be Pro-Death penalty, AND Pro-life
April 30, 201412 yr And I still can't figure out how so many can be Pro-Death penalty, AND Pro-life I think it's a matter of semantics. "Pro-Life" is most often used to refer specifically to those opposing abortion, and has little-to-no bearing on their opinion regarding the death penalty. To that point, I think the general mindset of anti-abortion/pro-death penalty individuals is that those being killed by abortion haven't even had a chance at life beyond their mother's womb - whereas people being put to death have had their opportunity at life, and have used it to commit such a gravely terrible act that they should be penalized with death as a punishment. I am Pro-Life in the true sense of the term. I am both anti-abortion and anti-death penalty.
April 30, 201412 yr And I still can't figure out how so many can be Pro-Death penalty, AND Pro-life I used to argue with some people about this on here. Their position is that innocent life should be protected but a murderer gives up their right to life. I am of the view that no one has the authority to "give up" their right to life and only when protecting your own life can you take another's.
April 30, 201412 yr The ten percent is kind of misleading, the percent exonerated vs the entire population on death row since the return in 1970 would be a more meaningful ratio. That ratio would come way, way down but it could then be applied to the number executed to get a meaningful number. Based on a quick, rough calculation, the number is still roughly 1%. Still way too high IMO. That's 1% of total death row inmates. When you take that over the population of those executed that's still roughly 14 innocent individuals murdered by our "justice system".
April 30, 201412 yr Based on a quick, rough calculation, the number is still roughly 1%. Still way too high IMO. That's 1% of total death row inmates. When you take that over the population of those executed that's still roughly 14 innocent individuals murdered by our "justice system". The list I found only had 30 listed in the US so it really puts it down to under .3% since you would have to include some people on death row before the renewal since some of the ones exonerated were from pre 70's trials. So you would be closer to 1 to 2 innocents executed, based on statistics. Is that too many? I'm sure it would depend on who you ask since otherwise we would have to do away with the death penalty completely. I understand you are against it so that is fine but those who are ok with the death penalty would probably say 1 to 2 in 40 years is acceptable. At least until it's a relative of theirs.
April 30, 201412 yr The list I found only had 30 listed in the US so it really puts it down to under .3% since you would have to include some people on death row before the renewal since some of the ones exonerated were from pre 70's trials. So you would be closer to 1 to 2 innocents executed, based on statistics. Is that too many? I'm sure it would depend on who you ask since otherwise we would have to do away with the death penalty completely. I understand you are against it so that is fine but those who are ok with the death penalty would probably say 1 to 2 in 40 years is acceptable. At least until it's a relative of theirs. According to this article, dated earlier this month, it seems 100 death row inmates since 1973 have been exonerated in the US. 100th Death Row Exoneration
April 30, 201412 yr Kentucky Department of Corrections - Death Row Inmates Check out these Smiling Faces...33 people currently on Ky's Death Row Most of those people have been kept alive way too long...
April 30, 201412 yr According to this article, dated earlier this month, it seems 100 death row inmates since 1973 have been exonerated in the US. 100th Death Row Exoneration Thanks, that's different than the article I saw.
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