The Death Penalty.

[System Malfunction]

I'm reading a column about it and they are saying they should go more leniant and that they have been through resent years.

Do you believe some one should rot in prison, or simply be put to death for crimes like murder?

[_Davey]

Rot in prison. No one has a right to end another life (discounting my views on euthanasia etc), even if they have ended another or destroyed another in a different way.

[Amy]

mixed views.

Some prisons are really nice... and often for some a prison gives a better life than what they had on the outside. They shouldnt be allowed to live the life of luxuary even if their activities are limited.

Though the death penalty does actually, ultimately, murder the criminal, it's an easy way out.

I dont know.
This is one thing Im undecided on.

[Torchskins]

The one fact your forgetting if the courts get it wrong then they can't undo the death penalty but if they sent the person to prison wrongly then they can just release them. The death penalty is horrible and should be stopped. Just to note about people being treated better in prison then they should get basics needed for survival e.g. no tv, basic beds and no basic food.

[Amy]

Thing is alot of prisons have playstations and TVs and outings and stuff...

I dont understand the point in that.
We're paying our taxes for murderers to enjoy themselves.

[WickedlyNate]

I pretty much agree with Amy.
I don't want them to get the easy way out, but I don't want them to be comfortable in prison either.

[Spanky [:]

Yeah i agree with Amy too.

We should like send our murderers to American prisons cos i reckon
they're probably much worse than ours.

Or any other country.

The UK makes prison life easy in someways.

[XDanielleX]

The one thing that I hate about the death penalty is that once it's done, it can't be undone. There was this guy in New Zealand called David Bain in 1994 who was convicted of shooting his whole family while they slept and he was given a life sentance in 1995, even though some people wanted him to be put to death (we don't have the death penalty in NZ, however). He served 12 years and in 2007 he was released on bail for a retrial, because new evidence has sprung up suggesting that he MAY not have done it. If he'd been killed, then there would be no retrial. For all I know, he could have done it and he will be put back into prison where he belongs, but if he hasn't, then it's a good thing that his life wasn't taken.
I see the death penalty as legalised murder in MOST cases. In some instances (like that incestuous guy Josef F. who kept his daughter hostage for 24 years-he needs to be shot!) I agree with it, but not often.
So I don't know. I've confused myself. :/

[Amy]

I suppose if there is hard evidence and you're in a situation where people are for the death penalty, theres nothing wrong with it as such because there can be no mistakes... say if theres witnesses or caught on CCTV..
Where there's not so hard evidence they need to be put on a death-row thing.. that doesnt actually end up in death.

Just a concrete room with a sink to pee in and 3, cardboard meals a day.

But still, this doesnt justify if they CAN be killed or if we should let them suffer....
I suppose if they shot someone and they died instantly, the death penalty would reflect that but if they say, kidnapped someone for years or sexually abused someone, letting them live it out and feel guilty for a period of time would reflect that.. does that make sence?

[Nathan]

Not all prisons have playstations and stufffff, newspapers do exaggerate.
Like they said thompsons & venables had tons of treats - they didnt. The media lied, there's no proof they had them, but theres proof they didnt

Im all for the death penalty for murderers only.
Providing theres solid evidence to prove they're guilty.. and it'd have to be a serious murder, not euthanasia etc.

[ninaYAYA[x]]

Thing is alot of prisons have playstations and TVs and outings and stuff...

I dont understand the point in that.
We're paying our taxes for murderers to enjoy themselves.

Since when? :S
I know people who've been to prison and it really isn't like that

EDIT: There has been alot of press saying that kind of thing lately but of everyone i know who's been the prison (and i know a few) it's not a nice place to be.

PLUS you're forgetting - Most rapists etc aren't even sent to prison anymore.
Overcrowding ;)

They'll send you down for petty theft but if you XXXX someone you get off on community service.

Because that's "fair" apparently.

StupidJusticeSystem.

[Amy]

Nominate a country to send them all too.
It worked before.
It'll work again.
Off to antartica they all go!

[ninaYAYA[x]]

Hows about we just stick them all on a barge in the middle of the antarctic ocean and say "if you can survive out here for three months you can come back to our country ;)"

[Adam..]

Kill em all its their own fault

[_Davey]

Okay when I said rot in prison, I meant actually throw them in a dark room for the rest of their lives with a bucket to poop in. Shackle them to a wall and send in a different person every day to punch them in the face before bedtime.

[Inconsequential]

I don't know if someone has already said this on here, but I think someone should "rot in prison".

Mind you, I don't know anyone who was murdered, so I don't know the feeling of utter hatred towards another human being (assuming thats how friends and family of the deceased might feel).

But in 9th grade, I watched a movie called "the Thin Blue Line" about a police officer who was shot. It was a documentary. There were like five or six witnesses, and they all agreed that the DRIVER was the shooter. But none of them could agree on who the driver was, the kid who supposedly wanted a house to stay at or the guy who had given him food but had denied him a place to stay and, I believe, was instead going to drive him to a hotel.

The older guy was charged with murder, and spent about 12 years in prison, waiting to be taken to the electric chair. At one point, they're interviewing him, and he says that not a day goes by without someone describing what it looks like, or how it might feel, when someone is electrocuted to death.

They also interview the kid (who is an adult by then), and, until shortly near the end, all you can see if his shirt and face. But then, right after they talked about how he'd murdered someone else (which he confessed to, because he realized he needed help or something), he scratches his ear, or his nose, or whatever, and you see that his wrists are cuffed together.

And, in the very end, it turns out that the older guy is innocent. And that the kid, though he never confesses to THAT murder, says to a reporter shortly before his death (I can't remember if he's put to death or if he just dies in prison), that if the older guy had given him a place to stay, maybe, just maybe, that officer wouldn't have died that night.

And that changed my view on the death penalty. Because if the older guy had died, had been put to death, in the 12 other years or however long it was, that would be the end.
They'd have found him innocent.
And he'd be dead.

[WickedlyNate]

Prison should not be comfortable for anyone, for any reason.
My view on the death penalty is keep it rare.
The only reason it should be used is if there is absolute proof that the person convicted was guilty.
But I think there are only a few crimes that are severe enough to deserve the death penalty, such as murder!

[ninaYAYA[x]]

The only reason it should be used is if there is absolute proof that the person convicted was guilty.
You can never have absolute proof - only seemingly absolute proof.

[megan]

I am so, incredibly against the death penalty. To me, it is very hypocritical and it really does nothing beneficial.
Murdering a murderer does not make it right. There is no such thing as justified murder on purpose. No human has the right to take another humans life.
It also costs more to kill somebody than it does to put them in prison for life, so you are actually saving tax dollars but putting them in prison.

Personally, I don't think the justice system should be about "punishing" people, but moving any person considered "dangerous" away from everyone else. Really, whatever they do with their lives in prison is not something I care about, I just want them far away from me and anyone else who could be harmed by them.
That was just a bit of a side note though.