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Post by It's~A~Nova on Mar 1, 2002 15:41:42 GMT -5
Personally, I am so very against the Death Penalty. No one should have the right to pick and choose when and why someone dies, no matter how horrible the person is. Not to mention that, even with today's technology, mistakes are made and innocent people are put to death for other people's crimes.
What do you guys think?
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Post by -*- Little Miss Strawberry -*- on Mar 1, 2002 16:16:11 GMT -5
Well in Britain we have no death penalty. When it was abolished, I don't know, but I don't think it was in my lifetime. I am quite glad of that fact. I am definately a person that believes in forgiveness. I also don't think we as humans have a right to judge a person guilty or worthy of death. Today's modern technology gets us nowhere nearer to finding people more/less guilty. And mistakes, indeed, are made.
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Post by girlpoet21 on Mar 1, 2002 22:54:19 GMT -5
I'm completely against the death penalty. We have no right to decide when someone should die. It should be abolished. Plus that the system is completely screwed up.
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Post by diamond.in.the.rough on Mar 3, 2002 21:31:42 GMT -5
I've been back and forth and back and forth on this issue. But finally I've come to the decision that no one has the right to decide that someone should be put to death.
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Post by pettyluv on Mar 3, 2002 22:36:28 GMT -5
I support the death penalty, as is I see it, it is the only punishment worthy of the offenses of murder or treason. I believe if you commit one of these offenses you knowingly and consciously forfeit your life to the state, you choose your own death once that act is commited. I believe that government has the right to put someone to death to protect her citizens, just as a man has the right to kill in defense. If a jury of your peers condemns you for your horrendous acts your life weighs as wager.
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Post by Cassiopeia on Mar 3, 2002 22:52:54 GMT -5
I don't believe in the death penalty for several reasons. First, two wrongs do not make a right. Just because a person murdered someone, it does not make it right to kill him/her. As the French philosopher Montaigne wrote, "The horror of one man killing another makes me fear the horror of killing him." Murder is wrong, no matter what the case is. I also don't believe the government has a right to decide how and when someone should die. Just because they are an authority, this does not give them the right to kill someone. It is no less wrong than if an ordinary person were to commit murder. Another point is that murderers should suffer the rest of their lives in prison and realize what they have done and live with that guilt. Most of the serial killers would rather be dead anyway. I know I would rather die than spend my life in prison, so why give them what they want? The cost of keeping someone on death actually costs more than putting them in prision for life, because of all the appeals. Most of them die from natural causes on death row anyway. Another reason I am against the death penalty is that there is always the chance that an innocent person could be executed while the real murderer walks the streets. There have been several cases where DNA testing has proven that certain people on death row were actually innocent. What if they had been killed before they were proved innocent? And how do we know for a fact that innocent people haven't already been executed? A person's life is not something to deal with lightly. If someone is wrongly accused and sent to prison, and then is later proven innocent by a re-opening of the case, they can always be released and be compensated for it. But if you kill someone, you can't bring them back if you find out you were wrong. There is no trial for error, and this is one of the major things I find wrong with the death penalty.
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Post by girlpoet21 on Mar 4, 2002 0:18:09 GMT -5
Cassi-that's right. Good points. You can not bring someone back to life. For us to kill someone for killing someone else just doesn't make sense to me. There are not that many people who escape from prisons anymore, so I don't see how they're a risk to society anymore. I can understand wanting to punish people, but like the point that Cassi made, does it really punish them to kill them? Like Tim McVeigh, he's dead now, the families are still suffering and I can't imagine how his death helped them very much. I would be worried if it did.
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Post by pettyluv on Mar 4, 2002 0:33:10 GMT -5
^^It is fine with me if you cannot find moral justification for Capitol Punishment, but I fail to find Constitutional justification for the abolition of the death penalty.
Also, for all those who oppose capitol punishment for murderers, is your opinion any different for those who are convicted of treason against the state??
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Post by Cassiopeia on Mar 4, 2002 0:50:33 GMT -5
^^^ I definitely do not think that people who commit treason (or anyone for that matter) should get the death penalty.
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Post by .Hunting:High:and:Low. on Mar 4, 2002 17:06:12 GMT -5
I see both good reasons for both points, but I stand by this: Until they actually enforce hard labor on prisoners and send them to remote areas, then I am for the death penalty. I look at it this way: If someone murdered my little sister, or my parents, I would want that SOB to fry. Literally. I do not want my tax dollars going to feed and clothe him/her and have that person is alive and my loved one is 6 feet under. I somehow doubt that many killers are remorseful, otherwise they wouldn't have done what they did, so why do you think they would suffer from their actions? I would rather have them off the face of this earth and not being able to harm anyone ever again, than take the potential risk of letting them free.
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Post by It's~A~Nova on Mar 4, 2002 18:03:13 GMT -5
pettyluv---"It is fine with me if you cannot find moral justification for Capitol Punishment, but I fail to find Constitutional justification for the abolition of the death penalty."
Doesn't the Constitution give people the right to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'? Correct me if I'm wrong but it doesn't say 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness unless....'
And yes, I oppose the death penalty in all cases, murder, treason, rape, etc.
My biggest problem with the death penalty are the chances of mistakes, because they do happen. How can we enforce this permanent punishment knowing that innocent people die. That makes us no better than those the death penalty is for in the first place.
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Post by pettyluv on Mar 4, 2002 19:34:43 GMT -5
<<Doesn't the Constitution give people the right to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'? Correct me if I'm wrong but it doesn't say 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness unless....' >>
I'll correct you. That is not in the Constitution, it is in the Declaration of Independance. <br> I could find justification for capitol punishment in numerous places in the Constitution.
Constitution of the United States of America In Article III Section 3
"...The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted."
This also confirms to me that treason is only punishable by death. This was also confirmed by Congress in 1790.
Look at a section the Fifth Amendment:
....nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;...
Where it says "deprived of life...withut due process of law..." this means if a fair trial is given then the death penalty is justified. Nor do I believe that the death penalty fits the description of the Eighth Amendment.
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Post by girlpoet21 on Mar 4, 2002 22:01:19 GMT -5
Petty- I don't believe in the death penalty at all.
Fuzzy- Did you know it costs more to give someone a death penalty trial than it does to feed and house them for their lives? Also, people are remorseful (sometimes) after they kill or hurt someone not before.
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Post by .Hunting:High:and:Low. on Mar 4, 2002 22:21:16 GMT -5
Did you know it costs more to give someone a death penalty trial than it does to feed and house them for their lives? Also, people are remorseful (sometimes) after they kill or hurt someone not before.
girlpoet, as heartless as this may sound, I would rather pay for them to die than for a murderer to live. In my book, if you take the life of another, you do not deserve to live, for I view life as a privalege and a blessing.
As for being remorseful... I don't care if they are. They should have thought about that beforehand. One should realize what one can do and how much one can hurt another. If they are ignorant to that fact, that is not my problem.
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Post by It's~A~Nova on Mar 4, 2002 23:36:45 GMT -5
Nertz....I always get those mixed up....
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