Your stance on Capital Punishment?

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Forums > All Posts > Your stance on Capital Punishment?

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11-24-2011, 02:59 AM

sbfriedman
Denton, TX
Posts: 931

With the recent moratorium of Oregon governor Kitzhaber on capital punishment, it got me thinking of exactly where I stand on execution. I would like to hear everyone's opinions on this site to see where you all stand on this issue and why you are either for or against it.

11-24-2011, 10:33 AM

that guy in Arizona
Flagstaff, AZ
Posts: 158

This topic strikes a nerve for a couple of reasons:

1) I just finished reading John Grisham's "The Confession", which is the story of a man who was wrongfully executed in the state of Texas (do I have your attention?), a state that has executed more people, by far, (477, to be exact) since 1976. The book gives a good overview of the death penalty, and it's also a pretty compelling story.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States

2) I was living in Illinois when then-governor George Ryan put a moratorium on executiouns after it was discovered that more than a dozen death row convicts had been wrongfully convicted. The 160 convicts on death row had their sentences commuted to life in prison. Effective TOMORROW, Illinois will officially end the death penalty, and the remaining 15 people on death row will be scattered to various prisons around the state.

www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-illinois-death-penalty-ban-takes-effect-friday-20110630,0,6963353.story

The majority of the states in America still have the death penalty, and roughly 60% of the population still favor the death penalty, but there are some important economic issues that really should be addressed.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, with roughly 2.4 million people behind bars. Of that total, 1.4 million are locked up for non-violent crimes, such as the possession of marijuana. Depending on the state, it costs somewhere between $18,000 to $31,000 a year to keep each of those people in prison, which means that we (as a society) are spending between 43 and 74 BILLION dollars on our prison expenses. Meanwhile, the Republicans are worried about teacher pensions in Wisconsin.

According to the best estimates, California (which has over 700 people on death row) could save $200,000,000 a year by eliminating the death penalty, and changing the sentence to life in prison without parole. I'm afaid to do the math, but if all 3250 people that are still on death row in this country had their sentences changed to life in prison without parole, my guess is that all of our states (most of which are fairly broke) would save a lot of money.

death.rdsecure.org/article.php

I'm not doubting that the 1.000,000 violent criminals that are currently in our prisons should continue to be imprisoned, but I believe that our society needs to be a lot smarter about where we spend our scarce resources, and I'm not convinced that being "tough on crime" is always the right answer. If you have the patience to read through it, I published a five part article (over five days) in 2009 that dealt with crime and punishment:

tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/07/tale-of-two-cities-prologue.html

Thanks for listening, and enjoy your Thanksgiving.

12-01-2011, 10:04 PM

Cracam
Not Selected
Posts: 63

How does it cost any more to keep a death-row prisioner than a non death-row prisioner? If the death row people were eliminated how much would that save? Just crunching the figures. Your afraid to do the math cause your math needs a calculator.

04-25-2012, 03:12 AM

Z3
Not Selected
Posts: 4

[QUOTE] I just finished reading John Grisham's "The Confession", which is the story of a man who was wrongfully executed in the state of Texas (do I have your attention?), a state that has executed more people, by far, (477, to be exact) since 1976. The book gives a good overview of the death penalty, and it's also a pretty compelling story. [/QUOTE]

So can a person in Texas be executed for murdering a 16 year old? Seeing that you have a good overview of the Texas penalty.

Since 2003, if you have information that a person was wrongfully executed I would appreciate hearing about it. However for general information purposes only here is the list of crimes that meet the Captial requirements to be sent to death row:

Texas law defines capital murder as follows:

murder of a peace officer or firefighter acting in the line of duty, when the person knows the victim is a peace officer or firefighter,

murder during the commission of kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction or retaliation,

murder for remuneration,

murder during prison escape,

murder of a correctional employee,

murder by a state prison inmate who is serving a life sentence of any of five offenses (murder, capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, or aggravated robbery),

murder of more than one person in one event, or of multiple persons in a related series of events, or

murder of an individual under six years of age.

But without a doubt, it was would be such a better world if people respected life and didn't murder each other, until then I pray that Texas fights the good fight.

BY THE WAY---I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT THE BOOK YOU READ IS A WORK OF FICTION

04-25-2012, 11:03 AM

that guy in Arizona
Flagstaff, AZ
Posts: 158

Cracam:

the answer to your question can be found by clicking on the link labeled "death.rdsecure" in my post

04-25-2012, 11:16 AM

that guy in Arizona
Flagstaff, AZ
Posts: 158

Z3:

Although Grisham's books ARE a work of fiction, they're generally based on a lot of facts.
If you've read "The Appeal", you'll get a very clear understanding of how the Koch brothers
have managed to take over large parts of our country.

The fact of the matter is that the death penalty is actually NOT a deterrent to crime. It certainly didn't deter Jared Loughner from shooting 19 people in Tucson in January of last year, which is another reason that we need more sensible gun laws in our country.

Rather than go further down that path, though, my further thoughts on the death penalty are posted below:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

The most compelling line in the story is Sister Helen Prejean's quote:

“Government can’t be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill”.

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