Is the Death Penalty Necessary?

by SodaHead News Posted 2012/04/24 20:00:00

Related Topics: Death Penalty, California, Ballot, Vote, Death Row, Marijuana, Inmates, Executions, Moral, Life In Prison, Repeal, Issues, Prison, Texas, Sentence

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	Yes	630 votes	64%
	No	352 votes	36%

California is putting another controversial measure on its ballot this year -- and you can expect to hear a lot more about it as it progresses. Activists collected 500,000 signatures to repeal the death penalty, a measure which would take 723 inmates off of death row and replace their sentence with life in prison. The death penalty is already off the table in 16 other states, and will soon be repealed in Connecticut.

The measure is significant in California because the state holds an enormous percentage of the nation's death row inmates (nearly a quarter, according to Yahoo! News). However, the state has only executed 13 people since 1976, compared to 481 executions in Texas. Activists argue that, regardless of moral issues, the state is spending billions of dollars on a system that rarely goes through with executions. Do you think the death penalty is necessary?

+35

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RoseyRhod 2012/04/24 20:37:26

No

+24
I oppose the death penalty not because I feel that someone who acually committed a terrible crime deserves any mercy, but because there are cases in which I think people who were not actually guilty were put to death. Better that we should jail the scum for life than inadvertently put to death one innocent person. However, I don't believe that prisons should be as cushy as they currently are. Inmates should not be allowed to watch television or have porno magazines. They should have access to a library. They should also have to work, and they should be carefully watched at all times. I may disagree with Joe Arpaio on profiling, but I fully agree with him that inmates should not be coddled. If you do the crime, the time served should not be easy.
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jeane to Phantom... 2012/04/26 00:55:01

No surprised.

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jeane to Phantom... 2012/04/26 00:54:27

Oh of course - they are???????????????

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Dagon 2012/04/24 20:53:52
Deborah... to Dagon 2012/04/24 20:58:10

+2
And much faster, too!

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WankerBait 2012/04/24 20:52:00

No

+5
There's nothing the death penalty does to deter crime, it's all about vengeance and/or revenge...

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Lew Ric... to WankerBait 2012/04/24 20:58:21

+3
EVER HEAR OF AN EXECUTED PERSON CAUSING MORE CRIME? CASED CLOSEDq

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WankerBait to Lew Ric... 2012/04/24 21:06:07

+4
Sure have! When the state executed person is innocent, it's a crime!

http://nakedlaw.avvo.com/2010...

http://www.aclu.org/capital-p...

Check, and mate!

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jeane to WankerBait 2012/04/26 00:57:53

We are talking about the guilty.

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Lew Ric... to WankerBait 2012/04/27 14:51:00

NAME A INNOCENT PERSON WHO WAS WRONGLY EXECUTED?

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jeane to WankerBait 2012/04/26 00:55:31 (edited)

No, it is about crime and punishment.

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caius madison 2012/04/24 20:51:57

Yes

+3
For everyone that says this is not a deterant, I call BS. It's the only reason I ha en't taken liberties before. I feel we don't exercise this option enough. In the days of knights and valor, a rapist was executed as well as the murderer.. what happened to that? Everyone who has mudered realizes they will be executed for it, so you make the bed you lay in. Most of the time, we do not make a mistake, so bleeding hearts, my opinion is on the beyond a shadow of a doubt proven case. As for the extremely rare victim of the system, it is unfortunate, but without standards, you have nothing standing in the way of every downtrodden or homeless deciding to just kill for a lifetime of food and shelter, with cable, gym membership, and friends he can relate to once in prison. Beats the streets...

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Lew Ric... to caius m... 2012/04/27 14:53:10

+1
I KNOW OF NO ONE WHO RETURNED TO AA MURDEROUS LIFE AFTER BEING EXECUTED! CASE CLOSED!

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(▪‿▪)DoctorWhoGuru(▪‿▪) 2012/04/24 20:50:10

Yes

+2
Yes

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««Gingey, the Master Debate... 2012/04/24 20:49:30

No

+4
It's barbaric.

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Dagon to ««Ginge... 2012/04/24 20:54:42
Deborah... to Dagon 2012/04/24 20:59:32

+1
Exactly why it should be done more often, and much faster.

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««Ginge... to Dagon 2012/04/24 21:00:35

+3
We're the only first world nation that has a death penalty. We also proportionately kill more minorities. So not only is it barbaric, it is racist as well. And there have been too many people found innocent after they have been put to death that it's absolutely not worth it. Do you remember the whole Troy Davis thing?

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yesh7ua... to ««Ginge... 2012/04/24 21:53:05

+1
When I think about Medger Evers, Emmit Till, Martin Luther King, The 4 young girls killed in that church in Atlanta, and so many more before and after slavery, that were treated as less than human ... If we feel so strongly about the death penalty, those murderers are the ones who should've been executed! Some kill for self defense. It's not always premeditated and for evil reasons. I don't believe in death penalty ... I believe they should live and experience incarceration at it's worst .. within reason! ImJusSay'n

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Dagon to ««Ginge... 2012/04/24 22:38:24
««Ginge... to Dagon 2012/04/24 23:03:46

+2
No, they are getting caught because police specifically patrol minority neighborhoods much more than white neighborhoods.

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Dagon to ««Ginge... 2012/04/25 01:59:59
Lew Ric... to ««Ginge... 2012/04/27 15:02:32 (edited)

THE POLICE GO WHERE THE CRIME IS!!! LOOK AT OUR NATIONS CAPITOL, THERE IS ALMOST AS MUCH CRIME IN THE STREETS AS THERE IN IN OUR WHITE HOUSE!
YOU CERTAINLY DO NOT BELIEVE NONE OF THE WHORES IN COLUMBIA
WERE ASSIGNED TO SERVICE BARRACK OBAMA, DO YOU?
SURELY, HE ORDERED A COUPLE FOR HIMSELF! LOL,LOL CUM AGAIN!

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theprot... to ««Ginge... 2012/04/24 21:06:46

Some crimes are barbaric and cry out for justice to be done.

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««Ginge... to theprot... 2012/04/24 21:16:02

+2
I agree. However, killing people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong does no good. Doesn't it bother you that the government is allowed to have the power to kill its own citizens?

Countries with death penalties:

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theprot... to ««Ginge... 2012/04/26 16:25:46

No. It doesn't bother me at all.

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««Ginge... to theprot... 2012/04/26 17:25:19

=/ I guess you like fascism and communism.

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theprot... to ««Ginge... 2012/04/29 01:01:00

Now there's a leap!

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Pikachu to ««Ginge... 2012/04/24 23:28:54

+2
I thought the death penalty was the one thing you were Conservative on? I remember because we disagreed because I'm against it

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««Ginge... to Pikachu 2012/04/24 23:50:26

+2
I am in a nonviolence course being taught by a Buddhist monk and it has changed my mind

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jeane to ««Ginge... 2012/04/26 00:58:26

So is murder.

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««Ginge... to jeane 2012/04/26 01:09:27

+1
Agreed.

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Lew Ric... to ««Ginge... 2012/04/27 14:56:19

BUT VERY EFFECTIVE!
HOLLYWOOD RADICALS , ARE THE FIRST TO" CRY OUT" FOR REVENGE WHEN THEIR FAMILY IS MURDERED!

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spike66 2012/04/24 20:47:38

Yes

+2
but they are doing it all wrong....make it as painful as possible and broadcast every one on cable....then it might just deter some jackoff from commiting the same crime.....oh, what about their rights...cry me a river....what about the victims rights? An eye 4 an eye....now there is a solid plan....u steal, off with the hand, u spy on ur neighbor, out comes an eye...u rape somebody...well...by by manhood, and if u kill somebody, u die by the same method....and other crimes, tattoo the offence right on the old forehead for everyone to see.

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Phantom... to spike66 2012/04/24 21:03:24

too bad that's completely unconstitutional, idiot.

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spike66 to Phantom... 2012/04/25 05:56:28
beth weisleder 2012/04/24 20:47:26

Yes

+1
Yes, it is necessary as a threat, as in: "If you KILL someone, YOU will be KILLED". However, it should be carried out promptly.
NONE of this nonsense about appeals and living on 'Death Row' for years wasting tax dollars to feed and house the monsters. If a jury knows that criminal should be put to death, they must have heard horrendous accounts and not have any doubt of the guilt.

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Phantom... to beth we... 2012/04/24 20:50:30

It costs more to execute a prisoner than to provide for their life in prison. Just so you know.

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Dagon to Phantom... 2012/04/24 20:55:37
theprot... to caius m... 2012/04/24 21:08:19

I'm with you, but the reason it costs more is because of all the appeals and the courts.

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caius m... to Phantom... 2012/04/24 21:01:47

The reason it costs more is because of the shots we use for humane reasons. A bullet costs the state $2. The electricity to make the chair spark costs little more than your pc does each month. The reason the shot costs so much is because the chemicals in it are used for nothing else. That, and all levels of government are required to puchase anything that they procure for use via a contract between said branch and whomever tbey contract. This is the reason we pay heavy taxes, because the contrator can name any price they want. Then the govt. must make a decision on who to go with.

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