Death penalty

Overview

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The death penalty refers to the legal killing of a person as punishment for crime. It is widely considered to be inhumane, and is illegal in many parts of the world but not in the United States.

Reference

• Wikipedia

Arguments

Objections

• One major problem with the death penalty is that it makes no allowance for miscarriages of justice to be rectified later (i.e. someone is executed and then later found to be innocent) which does happen on an alarmingly regular basis.
• A related objection is that the death penalty can be used to prevent a framed witness from talking, in the case of a henchman fanatically loyal to a high-level conspiracy; even in the absence of a real conspiracy, an executed perpetrator can give rise to conspiracy theories by this same reasoning, thus clouding the issue and hindering true investigation. Human beings, even hardened criminals, even monsters like Saddam Hussein, are too valuable (even in purely practical terms) to simply kill. They must be absolutely prevented from causing further harm, reformed if possible, but kept alive either way, however little they may deserve it.

Support

none found yet

Comments

• How can anyone who claims to be "pro-life" support the death penalty? Many apparently do.
• Midian says: The Death Penalty is about vengeance, revenge, an eye for an eye. While I agree there are some who have no value for human life and cannot be rehabilitated, killing is wrong, no matter who is doing it, including the government.