Your views on the death penalty/insanity plea

[Knight]

My objections are not religous, but ethical.

What is ethical about keeping a person locked in a cell for the rest of their lives only to die anyway? What does society gain from supporting the health care needs, and all the other basic life support needs?

If you mean you personally couldn't be the one to kill another after they were found guilty of killing, I can understand that. On the other hand would you defend yourself from being killed by killing? Do you see a difference in the value of your life over that of another?

 

[IKE]

I'm also for the death penalty........I also feel that if a person is proven guilty and given the death penalty the sentence needs to be carried out within 24 hours.

 

[Don M.]

I'm also for the death penalty........I also feel that if a person is proven guilty and given the death penalty the sentence needs to be carried out within 24 hours.

I'm with you. When there are multiple credible witnesses, or video from a security camera, etc., AND the criminal even admits his guilt, I see no need to go through endless years of appeals that do nothing but make lawyers rich. It costs a fortune to keep one of these misfits in prison for life...our tax dollars would be far better spent on needy people who obey the law. Only in the very rare case where this is some room for doubt, should a violent criminal be given any slack.
There's not much I agree with in Sharia Law, but their treatment of criminals makes more sense than what we do.

 

[Butterfly]

Um -- Sharia law? NO!

I do, however, believe "insanity" should mean real "insanity," not "I had a really bad childhood and so I thought I'd go out and kill some folks." I have very mixed feelings about the death penalty, but I do feel it may be merited in some of the most heinous cases -- like one we've got going on here now, involving a mother (along with her boyfriend and her sister) advertising to let others rape her 10 year old daughter for money, and then the beating death and burning of the body of the child in the bathtub (and maybe the child wasn't quite dead when that happened).

Otherwise, life should mean LIFE, not parole after however long, and not "maybe we'll change our minds later," but really life in prison.

 

[Sassycakes]

I think the insanity plea is just an easy way out for these people. They don't have to worry about the usual prison behavior that they may experience in jail, and they are given meds everyday too, so they can stay in 'la la land', where everything is peachy.

I'm for the death penalty, and I'd like to take it a step further, and kill those creeps exactly the way they killed their victims. In the case of child abuse and murder, these violators should endure ALL of the unspeakable torture that they put those babies or young children through.

I agree with you 100%. I am also for the death penalty and I also believe that in cases where children have been abused or murdered ,the killer should suffer a long and painful death. I don't think they should go peacefully. I think they should be stabbed over and over again while getting blood transfusions so it lasts as long as possible and they experience great pain.

 

[nvtribefan]

I oppose the death penalty primarily on economic grounds. It is indeed less expensive to house someone for life than to bear the cost of automatic and protracted appeals.

 

[Camper6]

not too soon senior;1196]The death penalty, while may occasionally be found to execute the wrong person, is a much better alternative in qualifying cases to life imprisonment that costs the taxpayers an incredible amount of money each year.

As long as it's you that doesn't get executed.

There should be a limit to the number of appeals as well. Rapidly sending the criminal through the system would save countless more money a year.

 

[Camper6]

I oppose the death penalty primarily on economic grounds. It is indeed less expensive to house someone for life than to bear the cost of automatic and protracted appeals.

The only way I could agree with the death penalty is that it is a deterrent.

 

[Trade]

I'm all for the death penalty. In fact I'd like to see us go back to Medieval style executions for the more heinous crimes.

I'm a liberal.

But I'm not a bleeding heart liberal.

 

[tnthomas]

I oppose the death penalty primarily on economic grounds. It is indeed less expensive to house someone for life than to bear the cost of automatic and protracted appeals.

Agreed. If there were a deterrent value to the death penalty, then it would be worth doing.

Revenge is the only tangible 'benefit' to the death penalty, but only satisfies those with an evil heart.

 

[Sunny]

Doesn't anyone remember that story in the news a few years ago about how DNA testing proved that a huge number of prisoners on death row in Texas were actually innocent? Most of them were African American, which undoubtedly had something to do with their convictions. They let them all go.

 

[Wayne]

I sure do not approve of 3 hots and a cot for years on appeals for prescribed crimes totally approve of it.

 

[911]

We up here in Canada have abolished the death penalty.. I have NO explanation why they did it, but never the less they did..
Sometimes I wonder if a criminal who should be executed is put in prison for life isn't suffering more rather than die a martyr.. Perhaps they should put all those criminals in a special prison where the basics of life are a luxury rather than a regular prison where they have almost everything given to them.. That way suffering like they did to their victims will be for the rest of their life..................

Suffer rather than die.......

This is just my opinion but I can imagine many not agreeing with me............

Karla Homulka should have been a candidate for the death penalty.

 

[911]

Here in Pennsylvania putting up a temporary insanity defense is difficult. Although I have investigated and heard of other cases where the cause of death would lead one to believe that the murderer was crazy, lawyers and defendants sometimes confuse temporary insanity with a crime of passion defense. For example; a man walks into his bedroom unexpectedly and sees his wife in bed with another man. Without hesitation, he reaches into his nightstand drawer and pulls out a gun and blasts one or both of them killing one or both.

The defendant and his attorney come to court and claim temporary insanity, instead of a crime of passion. Not all states have a crime of passion defense available as a plea. I have seen judges very quickly dismiss their plea, which then usually forces the defense to immediately appeal. Can you say trial delayed?