This is why I'm for the death penalty.

[DblBarrelJ]

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I'll repeat Midge's point: "Once you get wrongfully executed you won't be very active in trying to rectify the perception of your guilt or innocence either!"


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I have Midge on ignore so I dont see his posts, but I can answer this one since you brought it up.

This is not an argument against the death penalty. People who are against the death penalty love to bring this up, but the argument is about the legality/morality of a death penalty altogether. There are cases where there is zero doubt about the guilt of the defendent, and in some cases that guy will be executed. People like myself find that fair. That person cannot be executed if the death penalty is not in place, and that would suck imo.

People that are being executed in the US have gone through so many trials over so many years that it seems hugely unlikely that annyone innocent are being executed. That makes the "but what about the innocent people that are being executed?"-argument rather trivial.

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You forgot the point that it's a ridiculous point anyway. I've seen several stories about families who tried for years after the execution to prove the innocence of a loved one, only to end up ultimately proving an even more rock solid case against their loved one than the state did.

[MidGe]

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I'll repeat Midge's point: "Once you get wrongfully executed you won't be very active in trying to rectify the perception of your guilt or innocence either!"


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I have Midge on ignore so I dont see his posts, but I can answer this one since you brought it up.

This is not an argument against the death penalty. People who are against the death penalty love to bring this up, but the argument is about the legality/morality of a death penalty altogether. There are cases where there is zero doubt about the guilt of the defendent, and in some cases that guy will be executed. People like myself find that fair. That person cannot be executed if the death penalty is not in place, and that would suck imo.

People that are being executed in the US have gone through so many trials over so many years that it seems hugely unlikely that annyone innocent are being executed. That makes the "but what about the innocent people that are being executed?"-argument rather trivial.

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You forgot the point that it's a ridiculous point anyway. I've seen several stories about families who tried for years after the execution to prove the innocence of a loved one, only to end up ultimately proving an even more rock solid case against their loved one than the state did.

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Yes, they just had to wait for the right technology to come along. DNA forensic did and still does exonerate many wrongfully condemned to death, or long prison terms. But I do appreciate that a screw would usually not be technology literate.

[John Kilduff]

It is wrong to take vengeance. Revenge is essentially an evil emotion. By willfully submitting themselves to primitive and evil emotions, humans become less Godlike and even less human. Resisting the urge for vengeance, on the other hand, is the sign of a higher consciousness.

Many on Death Row have later been exonerated by DNA ewvidence (and some posthumously, I believe). You can free an innocent man from prison but you cannot resurrect him from the grave. Only Jesus was resurrected, and it is not for humans to pretend to be Gods, in meting out death as punishment.

Taking a life in hatred, as the state and state's apparatchiks do, is in itself an evil act.

The emotion for vengeance is understandable but what sets man above the animals is that man has the conscious ability to suppress the evil and to choose the good, whereas animals do not have the capability of making that willful choice. Choosing to kill (or to have killed) in vengeance or in hatred, is not living up to the God-given human potential.

Deliberately acting in cruelty is also evil.

Therefore the death penalty is evil on two counts: it is a deliberate act of cruelty, as well as a willful rejection of the higher reaches of human potential. Both are sins against God, and against the spirit of Love, and against everything pointing towards higher human potential.

Thanks for reading.

[slickss]

I opt to keep the Christian God out of this debate.

[Bedreviter]

As long as there is a seperation between the church and state I find it hard to argue for or against the death penalty based on what the Bible says.

And killing people has as little to do with playing God as treating deadly diseases do. Gods punishment doesnt come into play after the death is a fact, and whatever punishment is given in this world by humans probably should not be linked to any powers God have to punish people.

[MidGe]

Diverging slightly: Here is a good current example of the robustness of the justice system! Luckily the judge wasn't handing out death sentences [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[John Kilduff]

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As long as there is a seperation between the church and state I find it hard to argue for or against the death penalty based on what the Bible says.

And killing people has as little to do with playing God as treating deadly diseases do. Gods punishment doesnt come into play after the death is a fact, and whatever punishment is given in this world by humans probably should not be linked to any powers God have to punish people.

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You don't have to base it on God or the Bible, just base it on what you know in your heart is good and kind and right, versus what you know is cruel and evil and wrong. Acting in vengeance and cruelty is wrong and you know it when you look deep in your heart.

[Bedreviter]

Making a statement that people who take away innnocent lives for their own pleasure or profit risk having their own life taken away from them, and no longer be part of this world is not something I consider evil, cruel or wrong.

I think that stating that our society value the life of the innocent so much that those who take it away can end up having the same done upon them is not evil. In my heart I see this world and our society as being better with certain people that have proved that they do not respect the innocent life being sent to meet their creator.

[Metric]

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Diverging slightly: Here is a good current example of the robustness of the justice system! Luckily the judge wasn't handing out death sentences [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I'm going to have to go out on a limb and agree with Midge(!) that the state should not have the power of life and death over individuals.

[Bedreviter]

This make me remember why I put Midge on ignore in the first place.

Somehow hes not able to comprehend the fact that a process that last more than a decade and involves 5+ trials on the highest level (with expert witnesses, media attention, added attention from the system itself) is´nt comparable to one judge handing out stupid sentences for small offences on a bad day.