Capital Punishment: Yay or Nay

[Loonette]

In a nutshell, I'm against it - for many of the reasons that have already been mentioned here.

[CamSA]

Living in South Africa for 35 years and working all over the Africain Continent has been an eye opener for me , as I experienced the Congo, Burundi, Rawanda etc. There are bad people out there that will do just about anything. My 20 yr old daughter was gang rape by 4 men and a women two weeks ago, then two days after that myself and my partner were robbed in our house. no the death penality for the robbers is wrong but for those that have destroyed my daughters life by all means give it to them. they werent even decent enought just to have sex with her but they used bottles etc, thats how ugly it got. Over the years I have been shot, stabbed and hijacked 3 times. South Africa is still a beautiful place to live and be in, the people are wonderful and the diversity of cultures makes this place a very country still with milk and honey. Like my forefathers and many today we still protect the innoncent and serve, but a price is paid. I agree on the death penality

[Triumphgirl]

but for those that have destroyed my daughters life by all means give it to them.

My prayers for you and your daughter.

[HYPERR]

Be careful in thinking that modern forensics can get irrefutable proof. In real life it's nothing like CSI with the flashy lab, and articulate well dressed intelligent people and "dead to rights" analysis. Even when you have incredibly damning evidence: Evident as part of the crime (say found under the fingernails with fresh blood), no chance of contamination, 100% match across 20 alleles (technically not a 100% match but with high probability), and probabilities exist that there is only 1.2 people in the entire world (population ~7billion) that could have the same DNA- you can still loose.

Lawyers try to run circles around your expert, pay another expert to poke holes, and unfortunately most of the lab people I know are exceptionally intelligent but not very articulate.

I cannot speak for others but I have never watched a single episode of CSI or any other fictional Forensics shows ever in my life. I have however probably seen every single episode of Forensics Files and other documentary forencsics shows like Cold Case Files, etc. I have probably read every book that my library and my bookstores have on Forensics. I did two univ term papers on forensics(albeit the latter on computer forensics ).
That being said, I have never done lab work as you have and I most definitely acknowledge your expertise in this field. All my knowledge of forensics have been from reading plethora of non-fiction books and watching non-fiction shows; but never from bullsh!t shows like CSI

[Johnj]

How about an episode of Quincy, M.E.

[HYPERR]

How about an episode of Quincy, M.E.

Yeah watched it! Klugman's da man!

[dayll]

We are doomed as a society because we lost our guts. The Vandals are at all our gates. They sense our unwillingness to fight. We are too accustomed to comfort. How weak have we become when we are not even willing to kill the monsters among us? You want your children and grandchildren to have peace in their time well then it is imperative that we crush our enemies today? Enjoy it while you can because it will not last. -dayll

[Hondagirl]

I agree, deterrence doesn't work, and even if it did, it's a crass idea. If your argument for killing someone is that their death would deter someone else from committing a crime, then you are simply admitting you are using them for other ends. That is unquestionably murder of the most cold-blooded kind and is certainly not ‘civilised’.

As for their ‘deserving’ to die; I have no idea what that means or who would be in a position to adjudicate on the matter. If you say someone deserves to die for something and I said no-one deserves to die and we both give our reasons, there is no rational or obvious way of deciding who is right. It would just come down to a power issue or how strongly we felt about it. Arguments about ‘deserving’ are really just a mask for motives of revenge. And revenge definitely isn't 'civilised'.

In the end killing someone won’t change the fact that they have killed. And when you have killed them you have become a killer, too.

I'd be very unhappy if the death penalty were reintroduced here in the UK.

I agree with you theoretically -especially on the subjective use of the word deserve -but emotionally its very hard for me to accept repeat offenders murdering and crimes involving children. I don't think death is the answer or a deterrent but what else is there? For or against seems like not enough choice.