Capital punishment in the USA are we ..?
executing offenders more these days and do you believe that capital punishment actually reduces the crime rate or not?
Answers:
This is a tough issue, but I'm not for killing anyone. For me, capital punishment seems like the direct result of a shortage of ideas. Maybe that is the wrong way to look at at it, I don't know.
Human beings are going kill one another though. That won't stop. It seems to me that there should be some kind of system whereby the offender pays for the loss of his or her victim. I mean when the the conviction and sentencing are over, that person costs taxpayers. There should be a way to indenture that person to the family of the victim for the rest of their natural life. Doesn't have to mean contact, just servitude. Fit them into a program that makes them productive in some way so that whatever they produce, whatever the fruits of their labor, the family of the victim benefits. They are effectively imprisoned and enslaved until they die of natural causes---no parol, ever. They give up their life by taking that of another.
I don't know if that has been tried or if it works, but at the very least, it should be considered. People can be productive in a lot of ways. For instance, maybe the victim's family is poor, or in debt or has medical bills or can't afford a car or whatever. Seems a waste for them to not gain something from a criminal's continued existence. Put the guy in shackles and have him pan for gold 12 hours a day for the rest of his life to pay the family of his victim for killing their loved one. Whatever works.
I just can't agree with killing people, not so much because it's brutal, but more because it strikes me as creating a liability for society when that person could be truly paying back the debt they've created. Won't bring anyone back from the dead, but a deposit every month based on their hard labor wouldn't suck.
That's my $0.02
I do and I believe in it. Evil should not live!
I don't believe there's a direct corollary between capital punishment and the crime rate.
People commit capital offenses assuming that they aren't going to be caught or punished.
I think it is a mixed bag, in some cases it does curb crime in other cases is does not. There is lots of info about capital punishment available even regionally and for different years.
I think the only that prevents crime is not negative deterrents but positive reinforcement. Give a man a reason to stay out of jail and he most likely will consider it, but without reasons to stay out of jail, its hard to keep crime down.
I don't believe it reduces the crime rate at all. I think our society can do without capital punishment. I do not know whether we are executing more these days or not.
only uncivilized nations still resort to capital punishment.
Think about it, as a punishment it is ludicrous it is all over for the criminal in a matter of seconds, and it makes us murderers. You want to punish them put them in solitary confinement for the rest of their lives, that is punishment. ;-)
Studies have shown that it does reduce crime. So I support capital punishment.
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/...
Ask people who had relatives as victims?
Most people who murder are psychotic, either that or its a crime of passion (or even unprovable self defence). They dont care whether they live or die anyway and are certainly not thinking of the consequences when they do it if its a crime of passion. Its no deterrent.
Killing someone is too easy. Its a punishment based on revenge which is exactly why laws are passed, so it doesnt descend into tit for tat. Which it ironically has.
Execution in the states isnt even humane, you hear stories of botched executions where the convict is in agony for hours and hours because the executioner isnt medically trained (doctors and nurses cannot do any harm). You may say they deserve it, but doesnt that make you as cold and as heartless and as inhumane as the murderer?
A much better sentence would be to get life (and I mean life, they will NEVER be released, no hope of release and a brutal regime of hard labour). These new prisons should be on remote islands so that they are completely segregated from society. Death is too easy, make them repay society, they will learn then. Its worth the cost, if not in money then on your consciences and for you religious types, your souls.
There needs to be a reform of how the wealth of society is spread though. Most murderers are poor, uneducated with no jobs and drugs or other crime is usually involved. Its also a fact that most convicts on death row are black. No offense but black people are no more likely to kill then white, oriental or any other ethinicity. Why is it that they are on death row though? Racism perhaps.
More education, tailored to the individual or the individual community. Inner city kids need different things to country kids to keep them happy.
Dont let every tom dick and harry walk around with guns. Give an idiot a gun and what do you expect?
Remove handguns (they are usually used offensively rather then defensively) form public use like we have here. Yes their is still gun crime here but only among hardened criminals and gangs.
Columbine and other school shootings should give you more then enough reason to ban them.
At any rate its not guns that kill, its the brain that pulls the trigger. Remove guns and you remove a major method of murder.
There should be a worldwide push to wipe out the plants that make drugs, I mean wipe out entire species, we as a race are quite good at it. Drugs are then cut off at the source and removes a lot of crime.
Unjudgemental, free support for drug users should be available.
But you americans will never do all this, you are too thick headed to think that if you remove guns it will stop people shooting each other, rather then defending yourself with more guns.
I don't think we are executing any more than we have in years past. With never ending appeals, it's hard to tell. As to whether or not I believe capital punishment reduces the crime rate, again, I don't think so but here's why: When capital punishment is handed down to an offender, years and years of appeals go by and that person goes on living in prison for years and years at taxpayer's expense. I think it would be an amazing deterrent if the whole appeals process was shortened considerably and more executions of guilty people took place.
It doesn't prevent or reduce crime. For example, homidice rates are actually higher in states and regions with the death penalty than in those without it.
In fact, to deter others, a punishment must be swift and sure. The death penalty is neither. Life without parole, on the other hand is swift and sure, is rarely appealed and costs much less than the death penatly. (mostly because of the legal costs.) Life without parole is available in 48 states. It means what it says.
The answer just above mine recommends speeding up the process. More than 50 of the 124 death row exonerees had already served over a decade. Speeding up the legal process will guarantee the execution of an innocent person.
Good Question!
There are less and less states that practice capital punishment and the crime rate is rising.
When judgement is made and a person is convicted of a crime such as murder then if capital punishment is handed out in less than 48 hours, then the criminals would reconsider committing murder.
Some cities have re-classified crimes and as it turns out, when someone breaks into your home to rob you and if you get shot and killed in defense of your family and home, it is not called murder anymore.
It is called a violent crime, but not murder.
I think capital punishment should be inforced, the biggest problem is the laws are designed to stop the handing out of justice.
Just my opinion though
It is interesting to pose this question directly regarding the crime rate vs the 'justice rate', if you like.
The history of state execution is well-detailed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/capital_cri...
...but the figures friom Canada really intersted me....
http://canadaonline.about.com/od/crime/a...
The answers post by the user, for information only, FreeLawAnswer.com does not guarantee the right.
Answer question:
More Law Questions and Answers: