Capital Punishment

Can one assume that you are opposed to convicted persons appealing their convictions? Or is it just in the case of those convicted of murder?

The legal system is so complex that there needs to be time for everything to be considered before the execution... I personally think capital punishment is a cop out, and that being forced to live with what you have done, is much worse - being educated and rehabilitated and forced to face what you have done is much more useful for everyone involved... Those twenty years can be cathartic for the prisoner, and as you say, for the innocent, it is their chance to appeal. A shortened time period would result in many innocent people dying.

I don't see why it is ok to kll in certain contexts and not others. Death row is professional government endorsed murder.

I think the US is a dysfunctional society, too stupid to realize that revenge killing doesn't work. They have more people incarcerated than any other country in the western world, their prisons are savage, violent institutions and members of their police forces and nothing less than thugs and bullies. Wake up to yourselves, you believe everyone should be allowed to carry firearms yet there are more deaths and woundings in America, from people who are allowed to carry guns, than in any other country in the world.
Americans need to stop beleving their own fiction, "The land of the free and home of the brave," what utter humbug!

It's good to know, Anton, that you think clearly, with an open, unbiased mind that doesn't deal in stereotypes and shibboleths.

I oppose the death penalty for one reason only. Erroneous convictions. Execute an innocent man, and there is no rectifying the mistake. If a person such as Charles Manson, for instance gets executed, I don't object on moral grounds. I have no compassion for him, and I don't view his mortal flesh as sacred. The law ought to work equally, for one and all. Because it never will, there should be no executions. Life without a possibility of parole could work effectively for removing the convicted ones from society, which is or ought to be the primary aim.

I agree entirely.

But there is an additional point to be considered. "No executions" gives us the opportunity to rectify a mistake, but all too often that opportunity is never taken.

Though not too common, I've heard of a number of cases over the years where people have been kept in prison despite it being obvious that they are innocent.

And in probably about 80% of the US, innocent people who get their conviction overturned are either not paid any compensation at all or are paid a ridiculously low amount.

We need to do more than to just have the opportunity to rectify errors. We need to actually rectify them.



(By the way, note the current case before the Supreme Court over whether someone even has the right to claim they are innocent.)