Do You Support Capital Punishment?

[Notedstrangeperson]

I'm sure this topic has been talked to death already. Oh well.

Recently there has been talk in the UK about bringing back the death penalty. What's your stance?

A few questions to mull over:
Is capital punishment an effective deterrent?
Is it Christian to support the death penalty?
Does the method of execution matter?

 

[Daniel25]

It should not be a punishment except for unusual circumstances. One example is prison gangs such as the Aryan Brotherhood, whose leaders run murder-for-hire, prostitution, etc, while serving life sentences. As they are already in prison and still a threat to other inmates and society at large, the death penalty becomes a ethical option.

 

[Tuddrussell]

It should not be a punishment except for unusual circumstances.

It is never a punishment, it is a solution.

I fully support it. Sometimes death is the right thing. (Sometimes it is the only thing...)

 

[FaithLikeARock]

Absolutely not - especially in the circumstances we use it currently. It should be a very very last resort for people who have absolutely no likelihood of rehabilitation and continue to be a danger to others. It's never served as a very good deterrent because there are two types of people who commit high profile crimes:

1) people who commit spur of the moment, driven by emotion and;
2) people who exhibit anti-social behavior, and believe rules don't apply to them, or will find ways to cover up their actions.

Neither of these are people who are attentive to consequences, so threatening them with the death penalty isn't going to deter them any more than threatening them with a pillow. Punishment deters people from smaller crimes which people are more likely to do as a method of survival or for thrills (theft, prostitution, etc.) But murder isn't something any Jo Shmoe is going to commit - there's a profile for it that is very rarely broken (and when it is, there's usually a lot of debate of whether it was broken at all).

Even with murder, most people can be rehabilitated, since most murders are committed by someone the victim knows for very personal reasons. These aren't people that will necessarily go out and start murdering everyone they know - they were driven by something. A cheating wife, a tattle-tale, a life insurance plan - there's a specific motivation. They should go to prison, but personally I don't believe our current system of punishment is appropriate. What is given to society by someone going to prison? Sure they do some community service here and there but besides that it does nothing but keep them off the street (at the expense of the taxpayers). There are ways of rehabilitating these criminal that is still safe, that gives more back to the community, and that in the end are going to be much better for the offenders.

 

[Andy Broadley]

Thou shalt not kill

State sanctioned murder is still murder

 

[Tuddrussell]

Keeping them off the streets is good enough. No one really thinks that prisons do anything more than that. At least not in America.

American prisons are not for rehibilitation, they exist because to Joe Schmoe out of sight really is out of mind.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Thou shalt not kill

State sanctioned murder is still murder

No, it isn't. It's still killing, but by definition it isn't murder. I wish people would stop using the word murder so sloppily, as if it lends instant credibility to an argument.

It should not be a punishment except for unusual circumstances. One example is prison gangs such as the Aryan Brotherhood, whose leaders run murder-for-hire, prostitution, etc, while serving life sentences. As they are already in prison and still a threat to other inmates and society at large, the death penalty becomes a ethical option.

Interesting, I'd never thought of that.

 

[Tuddrussell]

Thou shalt not kill

Only matters in a theocracy!

State sanctioned murder is still murder

No it is killing, or more specifically homicide. Murder is a legal concept that does not apply, and can never apply, in such a situation with complete redefinition of the term.

 

[Andy Broadley]

No, it isn't. It's still killing, but by definition it isn't murder. I wish people would stop using the word murder so sloppily, as if it lends instant credibility to an argument.


Interesting, I'd never thought of that.

Murder is the taking of life with intent to do so

Executions are murder

 

[yasic]

Murder is the taking of life with intent to do so

Executions are murder

No it's not.

 

[Tuddrussell]

No, murder is the unlawful killing of another human being without justification or excuse.

That is a legal term, with a legal definition.

 

[Andy Broadley]

No it's not.

Yes it is

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Murder is the taking of life with intent to do so

Executions are murder

No, in the United States murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malicious intent.

 

[Tuddrussell]

Yes it is

It is not against the law, hence it is homicide but not murder.

 

[Andy Broadley]

No, in the United States murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malicious intent.

Just because a country has decided to make it legal does not stop it being contrary to the word of God

Thou shalt not kill...period

 

[Tuddrussell]

Just because a country has decided to make it legal does not stop it being contrary to the word of God

Thou shalt not kill...period

Thou shalt not... What now? It certainly isn't murder.

 

[Andy Broadley]

It does not say thou shall not kill unless sanctioned by a court in a country that legalises murder when it suits them

It just says NO. You will not kill. No conditions attatched

 

[Notedstrangeperson]

Now, now children: do we have any answers other that "Yes it is!" and "No it isn't!"

 

[Tuddrussell]

It is not murder if it is legalized, because muder is only unlawful. That doens't make it not wrong to do, it just makes it not murder. It is still killing, and is still apparently against God's law.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Just because a country has decided to make it legal does not stop it being contrary to the word of God

Thou shalt not kill...period

It also doesn't call it murder.