Capital Punishment For Murderers - Page 14

ORTOM · #**131** 01-05-2007, 12:22 PM

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3. (Should be rewritten as, does it cost more to execute the prisoner, or to keep him alive. This is a bit of a dangerous notion, though, as it might lead states to decide to make additional currently non-capital crimes, capital instead, in order to save money.)

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I don't know about other countries, but the United States constitution states that the only two capital crimes are murder and treason.

Bibigon · #**132** 01-05-2007, 01:30 PM

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I don't know about other countries, but the United States constitution states that the only two capital crimes are murder and treason.

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Can you cite this?

Wikipedia seems to suggest otherwise

jjacky · #**133** 01-05-2007, 02:02 PM

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I forgot to bold fundamental as well.

Humans have no inherent worth greater than that of any other creature. Prove otherwise without resorting religious texts.

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now i understand what you mean.

i can't prove, that human life has a fundamental worth, of course. i think it is both impossible: to prove it and to prove it wrong.

LouBlue · #**134** 01-05-2007, 02:08 PM

The thing is, similar situations take place all too regularly.

Let's say it did happen the way he described, and it was your daughter, or your niece, or a neighbor's kid. ... Because all the littel girls that get murdered that way are someone's daughter.

Or let's say it isn't a sexual predator. Let's say it's one of the guys a couple of years ago who were driving around randomly shooting and killing people. Is there no crime in your mind that would justify taking the person's life as a punishment for his/her crimes? Nothing so horrific that it could warrant such a punishment?

AlienBoy · #**135** 01-05-2007, 04:12 PM

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I forgot to bold fundamental as well.

Humans have no inherent worth greater than that of any other creature. Prove otherwise without resorting religious texts.

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Humans can manipulate their environment, and adapt to many different conditions, far more than an amoeba. Also a human has many more cells than an amoeba. Further, a human has a greater lifespan than an amoeba.

Since an amoeba is another creature, and it is easy to show that a human is greater in many ways than an amoeba without resorting to religious texts, therefore your statement is false.

AB

blackize · #**136** 01-05-2007, 04:27 PM

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Humans can manipulate their environment, and adapt to many different conditions, far more than an amoeba.

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This in no way applies worth. Furthermore, we manipulate our environment to the detriment of ourselves and everything else on this planet(global warming). This is an argument for a human having less worth than an amoeba.

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Also a human has many more cells than an amoeba. Further, a human has a greater lifespan than an amoeba.

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A giant sea tortoise has more cells and a longer lifespan than a human. Is it thus a more valuable creature than humans?

Come on now, surely someone can give it a better try than this.

EasilyFound · #**137** 01-05-2007, 06:41 PM

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Humans can manipulate their environment, and adapt to many different conditions, far more than an amoeba.

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This in no way applies worth. Furthermore, we manipulate our environment to the detriment of ourselves and everything else on this planet(global warming). This is an argument for a human having less worth than an amoeba.

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Also a human has many more cells than an amoeba. Further, a human has a greater lifespan than an amoeba.

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A giant sea tortoise has more cells and a longer lifespan than a human. Is it thus a more valuable creature than humans?

Come on now, surely someone can give it a better try than this.

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I don't understand your point? Is it that human life has no worth, so killing humans is okay? I'm sorta stumped here.

Killing a person to punish that person for killing another person makes no sense to me.

I find all arguments for the death penalty over LWOP to be utterly unpersuasive.

blackize · #**138** 01-05-2007, 06:59 PM

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I don't understand your point? Is it that human life has no worth, so killing humans is okay? I'm sorta stumped here.

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I'm saying that all these right to life, can't kill humans because they're precious arguments are fallacious

jjacky · #**139** 01-05-2007, 07:04 PM

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I don't understand your point? Is it that human life has no worth, so killing humans is okay? I'm sorta stumped here.

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I'm saying that all these right to life, can't kill humans because they're precious arguments are fallacious

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same holds true for the arguments of the other side, correct?

LozGrain · #**140** 01-05-2007, 07:18 PM

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I believe that the issue can be decided without emotions or high falootin philosophy or religion. Assuming we are talking about cold blooded murders, committed by "sane" defendents, I see the following four things as objective reasons to be for or against the punishment, as opposed to life without parole.

1. Will it dissuade others from committing murder?

2. Is there more than a micro chance that the life sentence will allow an eventual release or escape?

3. Does it cost more to keep him alive?

4. Is there more than a micro chance that the defendent is innocent?

There may be other factors that deserve consideration that I haven't thought of but I doubt it.

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1 more consideration: Your 8 times more likely to hit death row for murder if your black, than if your white and commit the same crime.