May 18, 2016 at 10:42 am

I am completely opposed to the death penalty because:

1) It’s just too easy to convict the wrong person, and you cannot bring back the dead. Roughly 4% of people sentenced to death in the US are innocent;

2) It costs more to execute someone than to imprison them for life;

3) The death penalty is not an effective deterrent, and may actually increase the violence of a crime because the perpetrator wants to either kill or terrify any witnesses into keeping silent;

4) It targets the vulnerable in society: More than half of all death row inmates have less than a high school education, and up to 10% have a serious mental illness. If you take the time to look into how a person was interrogated by police, there are a good many cases where people were coerced or where a suspect who qualifies as mentally retarded was manipulated or questioned under duress.

5) More than 60% of American prisoners are in jail for nonviolent crimes. So the majority of prisoners aren’t at all impacted by the use of the death penalty, and it won’t significantly reduce prison crowding;

6) Only about 13% of people sentenced to death are actually executed, making it very unlikely the sentence will actually be carried out.

May 18, 2016 at 10:47 am

@nakitakona13 The juvenile accused in this particular case got free only after three years. Can you believe? Just three years for brutally raping a girl and murdering her? This is the flaw of our laws. He was seventeen years and six months old when he committed this crime and so he was treated as a juvenile. He was a juvenile when he was convicted for the crime but tell me, how can you consider someone a juvenile when he has committed a gruesome sex offence and a murder?

Even when he was released, his identity was kept under wraps because according to Indian law, identities of juvenile criminals cannot be revealed. So all these years: during the trial, during his imprisonment and his subsequent release, he was anonymous. We will never know this man who committed such a ghastly crime. And who knows if has reformed or not? Who knows if he will not commit such a crime again?

May 18, 2016 at 10:52 am

I am a Catholic. Although I am not as devout as what is expected from me, still I would rather preserve the life of a convicted criminal. Ending his life will not turn back time. But giving him some time behind bars shoulkd enable him to realize that his mistakes incurred consequences which he should face.

I understand that some or most relatives of victims woukd choose the capital punishment of death penalty. But probably, the implementation of such should undergo scrutiny and clarify the clauses under such law.

May 18, 2016 at 11:18 am

@nakitakona13 As I have said it today at another place too that death penalty to people that committed heinous crimes so brutally against helpless members of the society is not wrong.

@Dawnwriter the death penalty is applicable in different countries and it should be everywhere if we have to see a safer society. I do not feel any pity for rapists and murderers who act so brutally against innocent unsuspected victims.

May 18, 2016 at 12:01 pm

Strongly against, death penalty is not only against reason, logic and religion as such, but also opens the gates of hell in terms of blood loathing, witch hunts, mass executions and political assassination under the cover of law.

With the law that justifies murder as a tool of a justice, you have been convicted your children to live in the perpetual fear.

May 18, 2016 at 12:13 pm

@suny  Same here! I absolutely have no pity for rapists or serial killers. Are human rights only for criminals? Those who were raped or were brutally murdered- didn’t they have any human rights? How can you feel sympathetic for Manu Sharma who killed Jessica just because she refused to serve him a drink after the bar was closed? How can you not want death penalty for Manu Sharma when you know that he has no remorse for what he has done and whenever he comes out, he gets into some sort of fight. There are numerous such instances where Human activists come out in support of those convicted for death but they don’t give a thought to the victims or the bereaved families.

May 18, 2016 at 12:59 pm

@nakitakona13 I am sorry but I feel these are just excuses. If a two year old goes to the market and sees candies and ice cream on display, even he knows that he cannot take one without permission/payment.

I live in a Muslim country and most women here dress very conservatively covering their hair and body and even they get raped.

It is always about not fearing the consequences. Girls may put themselves at risk by not wearing proper clothes, being so drunk that they do not know what is happening to them or be in bars with strange, unknown men.

But there are hundreds of cases in which girls and even boys are kidnapped and raped by people close to them. You are right. things like pornography, easy availability of alcohol, drugs, movies has totally ruined the human nature. These are abominations. In Islam alcohol and anything addictive is strictly forbidden barbecue they are called “Shaitan’s (Satan) handiwork.”

There are no easy solutions but people need to fear the law otherwise horrible crimes will keep on happening and no one will be safe.

May 18, 2016 at 1:01 pm

@rapidblue, you said:

With the law that justifies murder as a tool of a justice, you have been convicted your children to live in the perpetual fear.

I do not understand how this is possible? If culprits of heinous crimes are allowed to stay alive and even go free, isn’t it then when your children live in perpetual fear?

May 18, 2016 at 1:23 pm

@ruby3881

1) Of course, only those should be sentenced to death whose crime is proven without doubt.

2) I don’t know how this is possible.

3)Again, how can a dead person terrify witnesses? If his crime is proven he should be executed immediately like in the case of nursing student @swalia mentioned where 7-8 men raped the young girl in a bus and were all caught and  identified. Wouldn’t a witness be more afraid of the one who is roaming freely in the society after 3 years?

4) Those with mental illness cannot be held accountable for their deeds but again many more hide behind this ruse.

You also said:

More than half of all death row inmates have less than a high school education,

Does education stop people from violent crimes? Don’t illiterate people know the difference between right and wrong?

And last, people should not be put on death row for 20 years. If there is no doubt about the crime, they should be executed at once.

Recently a servant killed his elderly female employer. He took all valuables from home and money and crushed her skull. just as he was coming out of the house, people saw blood on his shirt and captured him. He has been caught red handed. Is there any justification for allowing him to live?

May 18, 2016 at 2:20 pm

Like I said before, strongly against.

The laws, evidence, human factor can all be wrong. Yes, with the death penalty you convicted yourself and your children on the constant fear. Anybody could be a victim of the things I listed. If you look beyond your rage, you should realize that one evil calls another, the goal does not justify the  means. Who ever claims anything different is nothing better than the murderer himself.

Also, from the aspect of the realism and atheism, by killing a murdered who really DID it – you resolved him not from the life, but from the human suffer and pain.

If a person shall kill my own, I want him to bleed, ache, suffer and bare all the earthly terrors on his shoulders FOR THEM. Life is not nice, a human body is a not a freedom,  it is a grave made of the ash and dust and as such is doomed to suffer.

Whoever wish to kill, I wish him to live and suffer forever.

From the aspect of any religion and faith ( yes, Islam too – the roots of that religion are the most non-lethal of all, just for the quick reference) , only God has a right to judge. Sorry, dear humans – but your opinions can’t live up to that. The moment you vote for the killing – you condemned yourself.  No right to appeal.

Take  good thought before the rage overcomes you and before you put a blood of the possibly innocent people on your hands.

If a person killed, that is not a call for YOU to be a murdered as well.

The seed of the destruction comes in many forms. One is rage.