Illinois abolishing death penalty

[garlic_b]

My students often ask me my point of view on the subject. And I always give them the option of the short answer or the long answer.

Short Answer: I am against the Death Penalty for many of the reasons already listed.
Long Answer: In a justice system devoid of errors and biases, I am in full support of the death penalty. That said, I know that such a system will never exist.

Further: If I were a convict and my choices were a needle or a** rape and regular beatings for the remainder of my life. I'm takin' the needle. I think prison is a much worse punishment. I would want the person to suffer for years. Truthfully, if we're talking retribution, a needle is letting them off too easy!

 

[spec4]

One thing certain about the death penalty; a murderer who is executed will never murder again. He will never be able to kill a guard, he will never be paroled by liberals so he can enter society and kill again. Of course, the guilt must be positively proven. Anyone recall Richard Speck? He killed seven student nurses, ended up with life, and was enjoying it. At the time I knew a correction officer who said Speck traded sex for cigarettes.

 

[sadclownwp]

Two Things

1. Rope is reusable.
2. Death is not always a punishment, sometimes it's a release.

 

[CarmelHP]

dross -

This is an interesting juxtaposition to the thread about the father whose child was killed and 20 something years later the killer is released. And many of the same people were saying that they would take justice into their own hands. How is that different than the state doing it?

That case is why I have mixed feelings on this issue. I'm uncomfortable with the state killing its own citizens, yet there are some people so sinister, their crimes so heinous and their guilt so certain that they should be killed to spare society and their victims friends and family any further contact with them. Someone who keeps a diary in which they describe consuming the flesh of the toddler that they butchered meets there criteria.

 

[dross]

Again, there are many people who deserve to die for their crimes. Many of them deserve to die under torture. It's not about the guilty for me, it's about the innocent people who will surely die.

Look at Texas. They elect their Supreme Court Justices and many of their other judges. This means that the final hope of an innocent man rests with a politician. This creates an atmosphere where innocent people get executed.

It's just one power I don't trust the state with. And, contrary to popular understanding, it costs more to execute someone than it does to house them for life.

 

[Manan]

I do not support the death penalty based on my own personal moral and religious beliefs.

 

[jsgolfman]

NAP