Do you support the Death Penalty?

[WI_DEM]

here is a list of capital offenses:
www.capdefnet.org/fdprc/contents/fed_cap_off/federal_cap_offenses.htm

[PatrioticLeftie]

1. No, Not at all

Instead sentence life in prison for the major crimes, they are going to die eventually anyway, why not let them think about what they did to be there?

[NYC Liberal]

2. A big NO. Life in prison without parole is a much more horrible sentence

than just dying anyway.

[Debi]

3. The big question on capital punishment

Is "are we 100% positive we convicted the right person?"

[tularetom]

6. No

Except for crimes of treason committed by high federal government officials

[Debi]

12. To the Chamber, no appeal!!!! n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Only for outing CIA agents and starting illegal wars.

:rofl:

[Neil Lisst]

5. No, on grounds that it is fundamentally wrong.

I understand the blood lust desire for vengeance, however.

[Patiod]

7. No not at all, but with a single exception

Convicts who are a threat to others' lives even when they are incarcerated.

I'm thinking people like this one murderer in Delaware who tried to have a hit put out on his former mistress, or Aryan Nation people that are ordering hits on people in and out of prison.

[noamnety]

8. I need an "other" option

Voluntary euthanasia (after a waiting period) for those with a life sentence. Not court-ordered mandatory death, though.

[Stand and Fight]

9. No, and I have EVERY reason to support it.

I've every reason to support the death penalty that those who are pushers of it typically mention as grounds for such a heinous practice.

[napi21]

10. I say no, never, but I must admit, if someone brutally murdered

one of my kids or loved ones, I'm not sure I could overcome the desire to want them DEAD!

[MGKrebs]

11. No, but...

If somebody could provide statistics that show it makes a difference as far as reducing crime or some other significant practical benefit, I might accept it. Otherwise, revenge is not a good enough reason to be killing people.

[ken_g]

13. At one time yes, now No. We just can't know. To much State power. eom

[redwitch]

14. no.

nt

[nini]

15. My gut reaction would be yes if someone I loved was killed etc..

But when it came down to the moment of execution I wouldn't be able to be part of it. I would hope having others in the system make the judgment would suffice.


I believe life in prison for such crimes is harder on the person in the end anyway. Let them lose all freedoms for the rest of their life.


This is not an easy choice either way IMHO

[eallen]

16. Capital punishment is useful to provide something worse than life.

I think it should be reserved for a very few crimes where that matters, for example, as punishment for murder committed while serving a long prison sentence, or as punishment for murdering a witness to a crime. The problem is that there are cases where the criminal can avoid a long prison term by killing innocents, or is already serving so long a prison term that the risk of further imprisonment doesn't matter. By providing the "one thing worse," capital punishment can be used to make sure that it is in the criminal's interest not to kill witnesses, guards, etc.

[Az]

17. There is no rational reason for the death penalty

It is a purely emotional reaction.

The death penalty asserts the idea that the government (or anyone) has the right to kill another human being.

The death penalty does not allow for mistakes. You can't say oops.

[...of J.Temperance]

18. Yes, 101% for certain types of crime

Child molestors, they don't even have to KILL the child, as soon as they go NEAR a child, they should be executed.

Rapists. Serial killers. Traitors. Those that kill elderly people for the purpose of robbery or no apparent reason. Wife beaters. Those who commit hate crimes against gay people or black people or Hispanic people or whatever...Right-Wing Republicans. The list is endless.

[MrSlayer]

19. Yes.

For all capital offenses and I'd like to have it expanded to include pedophiles and violent rapists.

[...of J.Temperance]

21. What you said, the Death Penalty DEFINATELY needs expanding

For those two crimes.

[AntiCoup2K4]

42. The state doesn't need to execute pedophiles

Just put them in the general population of the prison. The convicts will take care of the rest.

[rzemanfl]

20. Wisconsin does have death penalty of sorts. Note what

happened to Jeffrey Dahamer and that Judge from Darlington (MacDonald?) It's just real informal and administered by prison officials and guards.

[gulliver]

22. If there were some sort of national standard review process...

... then maybe. The trouble with the death penalty is that poor defendants can get unfair trials. Then you get a guy like Bush in Texas who probably had Karl Rove decide who lived and died.

Too much room for unfairness and politics... Hence, I am against the death penalty at this time.

[LostInAnomie]

23. I am torn.

On one hand I know that there is no correlation between the death penalty and a reduction in crime and that it has more to do with a wish for vengeance instead of deterrence.

On the other hand a life sentence for incredibly heinous crimes doesn't seem just.

[Tom Bombadil]

24. NO

State execution is backward and medieval.

It has no place in a civillised world.

[Jed Dilligan]

25. Not for any current application.

Reserve it for public crimes (TREASON, for example) and the public's eye. I think it's sickening that the state kills people in private little chambers. If it's worth doing, do it in the public eye. The death penalty does not deter a mentally retarded rapist, but it might deter a venal CEO or power-hungry congressman.

[Ksec]

26. No

Killing is killing. Nobody has that right.

[left is right]

27. I supported it during most of McVeigh's trial

for him and him alone. By the time they the sentencing portion of his trial, I had come back to my senses and realized that I could no longer support the death penalty even for him.

[jzodda]

28. 100% against in all cases

I think its morally wrong for the state to kill anybody in such a fashion.

I also think its application has been racially unfair

I also think that the process is unfair, and incompetent. Lets face it there are numerous prosecutors out there who care less about truth then advancing their own careers. The fact that people are getting taken off death row and found to not having done the crime is more then enough for me to end the practice completely. Stories of public defenders not doing any discovery or falling asleep at trial. Horror stories all of it.....

[styersc]

29. The only form of execution that I can accept would involve a

convicted murderer or child molester driving a car through an intersection where Laura Bush is at a stop sign putting on her make-up. If the criminal survives the ensuing collision, he should be allowed to live in prison for life. But so far, no one has ever survived this scenario.

[Chovexani]

30. No, not in any circumstance

Because I believe it's nothing less than state-sanctioned murder, and it's morally wrong. There is no rational reason for it, it just appeals to people's sense of revenge and bloodlust, and I don't think it has any place in a supposedly civilized society.

[fishwax]

31. no, not at all

and the so-called "tough cases" don't bother me either.

[Jade Fox]

32. No. It is not enacted in a fair manner....

by which I mean you are far more likely to receive the Death Penalty if
you are poor, black, and male than if you are from any other demographic.

Appeals by those given the Death Penalty take up large amounts of time
and money in the court system.

And I also believe it is wrong. Life in prison with no parole--absolutely.
But I believe the 10 Commandments say "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

[undergroundpanther]

33. I support it,but not the state doing it.

Because our government is so corrupt so I think the state can't be trusted to be honest or fair.
But I do support the killing of all pedophiles,rapists,torturers, child killers,,(abusers who torture thier kids)and corporate criminals/drug dealers who hurt people in the name of profits.

[PhilipShore]

34. No

In most death penalty cases, the psychological profile of the murderer is that of a suicidal person, that switches from suicidal to homicidal thoughts and actions, so by giving, the murderer the death penalty society is giving exactly what they want is to commit suicide. The last thing they want is to sit behind bars for the rest of their life, in a Penitentiary.

Also, I am a Christian, and my God commanded me in the 10 commandments to not to kill.

God did not say, "Well Thou shall not kill, but thou can kill if the crime is bad.”

[OneBlueSky]

35. I'd rather we at least pretend to be a civilized nation . . . n/t

.

[Raksha]

36. I voted No, not at all.

Being a pretty vindictive person myself (in thought if not in actions) I can understand the desire for revenge. But the death penalty gives the state more power than I ever want them to have.

[Raksha]

37. I voted No, not at all.

Being a pretty vindictive person myself (in thought if not in actions) I can understand the desire for revenge. But the death penalty gives the state more power than I ever want them to have.

[SaveElmer]

38. Murder is murder!!!

Doesn't matter if it's an individual or the government...it's immoral by any standard!!!

[SeattleGirl]

39. I voted No, Not at all.

I used to accept the death penalty as just a "fact of life" but over time my views evolved. I started thinking very consciously about it when I saw "Dead Man Walking", but realized that my view about it had started to change earlier. Several years before that movie came out, one of my uncles was murdered. They caught the guys who did it, but the death penalty for them never entered my mind. Ever. And then I found out that on the death certificate, "Cause of Death" for those to whom the death penalty is carried out is "Homicide." Makes no sense to me that "Homicide" his a crime for which one can be put to death, and the cause of THAT death is "Homicide."

[FreedomAngel82]

40. Nope

I think there is a better way than the death penalty. Why not help their souls? Nobody wins in the death penalty. People will still grieve if it's a murder etc. I would rather work on making the person better than just killing them. Two wrongs don't make a right. The thing that gets me is all these rightwingers claim to be "pro-life" but than turn around and claim to be for the death penalty because the person was a murder etc. Well aren't they being a murder too? :eyes:

[WA98296]

41. Perhaps just the thing for certain TREASON crimes...

Perhaps it would curtail future attempts.

[NAO]

43. Only for TREASON or accessory to TREASON

In the words of our 41st President:

"Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors."

- George H.W. Bush, the Dedication Ceremony for the George Bush Center for Intelligence, 26 April 1999

[newyawker99]

44. No death penalty.....NO EXCEPTIONS!!

[RepublicanElephant]

45. as long as there are racist laws, racist cops, innocents on death row...

NO!!!

[Fox Mulder]

46. Not at all.

There have been too many innocent people (one is too many) put to death for a crime they later were found to not have committed.

[mopinko]

47. i voted not at all, but

i could support a requirement of having overwhelming evidence. john wayne gacy, with 33 boys buried in his crawl space, is hard to defend. jeffery dahmer with a freezer full of body parts. it is also pretty hard to imagine they got the wrong guy.
i don't have a problem with them rotting in jail, but i think the prison system is another can of worms. especially now that so many are privitized, and not that accountable. the kind of "justice" that befell dahmer is not acceptable, either.