Do You or Would You Support the Death Penalty If?

[alienlovechild 75]

Killing is killing. There are no 'various degrees.' You are either dead or not.

Um, the court cases decide the guilt or innocence of the defendant based on the degree of the offense by what the state decides to charge the defendant. The victim is dead but was it an accident, pre-meditated, is it legally sanction (cop or soldier kills), age of the defendant, mental capacity. . .

You'll never have to sit on a jury with that attitude. I sat in a jury of a guy charged with murder or manslaughter. It wasn't a death penalty case.

Haven't any of you ever been on a jury?

[peejay 327]

There are various degrees of murder depending on the circumstances.

Killing is killing. There are no 'various degrees.' You are either dead or not. This isn't The Princess Bride where someone can be 'mostly dead.'

Soldiers kill enemy soldiers, but are not considered murderers. There is a huge difference between killing and murder under the law and through cultural norms.

I disagree with your assessment that all murder is equal. Some kill out of blind rage in a moment of passion, are remorseful later, and probably would never murder again. Others systematically murder for gratification, enjoy doing it, are not remorseful, and would murder again if given the opportunity. That is why there are degrees of murder in the law with differing penalties ranging from term confinement, life confinement, to execution.

But, yes, the victim is just as dead in all cases.

[Welshcookie 17]

No

No

Female foreigner

[Nessa 23]

I don't think it's in our hands to decide to terminate someone's life.

[Alex+R 0]

Of course not.

You have to be a really sick ** to want to see another human die, IMO. Any society that conditions its members to want to watch people die is seriously disturbed.

I have a close friend on death row.

He is guilty of manslaughter, not murder. A lot of lawyers are trying to help him now, and he just won an appeal, praise flying spaghetti monster.

[Mags 112]

I do not support the death penalty in any way, shape or form. It makes me feel sick.

[peejay 327]

Texas Justice and the Death Penalty

Media Monitor | By Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid | September 26, 2000

Public outrage forced the state to triple its prison capacity and make sure convicted killers are sentenced to death, incarcerated, and not released to murder again.

Texas Governor George W. Bush has been condemned as an executioner for presiding over the use of the death penalty. But the major media have not provided the necessary background. Texas has an effective death penalty today because of the public outrage that greeted the breakdown of the criminal justice system in the state before George W. Bush ever became governor.

The story was told recently by the A&E cable television network, in a program titled “Free to Murder Again.” The 50 minute documentary was part of its excellent “American Justice” series and is being re-aired on a regular basis, so check your local listings. The program shows the folly of letting liberal judges take control of the justice system. The case involved Kenneth McDuff, who in the 1960s was sentenced to death for his role in the brutal murders of three teenagers near Forth Worth, Texas. His sentence was commuted to life in prison after the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty. Then, McDuff was freed from prison when another judge, whose name, ironically, was “William Wayne Justice,” ruled that Texas prisons were overcrowded.

G.D. Blackman, a writer in Arlington, Texas, explains, “Judge Justice ruled in the early ’80s that...the prisoners needed bigger cells, color television sets with cable, and ping pong tables.” Texas at the time didn’t have the money to build enough prisons in a rapid manner, so it was forced to institute an “early release” program. Although McDuff was not supposed to be eligible for parole, he was freed from prison by a vote of the Parole Board.

The American Justice program shows that he wasted no time in killing again, and by 1993 was back behind bars, this time for murdering a 28-year- female accountant and a 22-year-old mother of two. However, he is believed to have raped and murdered a total of 12 women. He was executed in 1999.

A group called the Coalition for a Safer Society played a role in legal reforms wrought by this case. Public outrage forced the state to triple its prison capacity and make sure convicted killers are sentenced to death, incarcerated, and not released to murder again. Matt Harnest and Lori Bible founded the group. Bible was the sister of one of McDuff’s victims, Colleen Reed. She was abducted from a carwash and sexually assaulted by McDuff for 45 minutes before being murdered. Before his execution, Lori Bible said, “I can’ imagine anyone in this country who deserves to die more than Kenneth McDuff. I can’t imagine our courts will step in and try to stop this. But then I never could have imagined someone would vote to free this monster from prison.”

To those who argue that the death penalty has no deterrent effect on crime, writer G.D. Blackmon says, “Kenneth McDuff unarguably disproves that theory, since it is a fact that at least twelve women would be alive today had he been put to sleep when he should have been.” The next time Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton complain about the death penalty in Texas, ask them about the McDuff case.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reed Irvine is the former Chairman of Accuracy In Media and Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report.

http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/texas-jus...-death-penalty/

[Zee Bee 61]

No, no, female USC

Edited September 1, 2008 by ZeeNusah

[IAMX 3,055]

The death penalty is far too barbaric, and intrinsically as reactionary and disrespectful, not to mention hypocritical and archaic, as the killing itself. Knowing it will kill innocents, and has, it isn't worth one single innocent death. Give 'em life in prison.

Here's the first list I could find on overturned death penalty convictions, including some obvious wrongful executions of innocent people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overturned_co...e_United_States

So yeah, citing objectivity, rather than emotion, being in the situation where I'd be wrongly convicted of something, I'd rather not die just because of some people's thirst for hypocritically righteous, murderous revenge.

[Alex+R 0]

Good link, SRVT.

** the death penalty. Upheld by small-minded savages.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Wow - people actually voted for the "can't make an ommelette without breaking eggs" approach.

If those votes are genuine - I'm quite shocked.

[Alex+R 0]

Wow - people actually voted for the "can't make an ommelette without breaking eggs" approach.

If those votes are genuine - I'm quite shocked.

Welcome to America. That's the foundation of the Texas justice system, for example. That viewpoint is respected and taken seriously here.

[peejay 327]

Wow - people actually voted for the "can't make an ommelette without breaking eggs" approach.

If those votes are genuine - I'm quite shocked.

Welcome to America. That's the foundation of the Texas justice system, for example. That viewpoint is respected and taken seriously here.

No...that is not the viewpoint or foundation of any criminal justice system in the USA, much less Texas. The justice system does not want anyone that is innocent to be executed or incarcerated. That is not the goal of our criminal justice system in America. Convicted criminals are given due process and access to the appeals process. There is no acceptable tolerance for error. The system is not run on a concept that "X" number innocents executed are tolerated. That is why this poll is stupid.

How many highway deaths are acceptable before motor vehicles are banned from the roads of America? That's your logic? The government builds roads knowing damned good and well that innocent people will certainly die on them? Jeez...give us a break! At some point exercise some common sense.

[IAMX 3,055]

Wow - people actually voted for the "can't make an ommelette without breaking eggs" approach.

If those votes are genuine - I'm quite shocked.

Welcome to America. That's the foundation of the Texas justice system, for example. That viewpoint is respected and taken seriously here.

No...that is not the viewpoint or foundation of any criminal justice system in the USA, much less Texas. The justice system does not want anyone that is innocent to be executed or incarcerated. That is not the goal of our criminal justice system in America. Convicted criminals are given due process and access to the appeals process. There is no acceptable tolerance for error. The system is not run on a concept that "X" number innocents executed are tolerated. That is why this poll is stupid.

How many highway deaths are acceptable before motor vehicles are banned from the roads of America? That's your logic? The government builds roads knowing damned good and well that innocent people will certainly die on them? Jeez...give us a break! At some point exercise some common sense.

I hope you're not a Criminal Justice major/grad, or we're in some deep ####. Criminal Justice today is more (and increasingly more as time goes on0) of a representative of "corrections" than "justice", and rightfully so. This Texas Justice BS is on it's way out. Apparently some are incapable of separating logic and the evolving application of social justice with their beliefs, which are clearly stuck in the stone age.

[caybee 21]

No, no, female USC.