Question inspired by finding this a few minutes ago.

after 2 years of law school, I am even more firmly against it.

I would be ok with giving a lot more people life sentences, however (sex offenders) and making room for them by letting most of the people convicted of marijuana possession out.

Yeah, it probably has nothing to do with population at all.

In some class we had debates/papers and my topic was the Death Penalty and had to be pro for it. I dominated.

Population of US: 289,064,778

Population of Iran: 69,413,909

Population of Vietnam: 83,956,682

and yeah, China's huge. Just sayin is all.

i'm opposed.

aren't murder rates higher in states with the death penalty?

I heard this dude call into c-span yesterday saying he was a retired prosecutor of like 40 years. He talked about how he was against capital punishment at least in part due to the incompetence he often witnessed in lot of the public defenders he went up against. I'm paraphrasing him like crazy, but he was basically saying it would have been an unfair fight, and he was happy he tried cases in a non-death penalty state, Michigan. Although I guess that begs the question how many innocent people did he put in prison for life due to said incompetence??? lol

I am for it in the abstract, after all, sometimes motherfuckers just need to die (Gacy, McVeigh) but I also feel that if one innocent person dies, it is too many, so I am against it. Put 'em in jail and let Big Lou and Meat sell their candy asses for cigarettes, before the crooked warden makes a prisoner who's getting out the next day "pay a visit" to his family.

at least if you are stll alive you can appeal.

i'm against it

Doesn't deter, doesn't protect, don't think the state should do revenge. Against.

Does anyone have the number of death row inmates in the US who have been exonerated? For some reason I can only find numbers up to '02 which was 100 people.

DNA testing has been pulling people out of prison like crazy. There are roganizations who raise $ to test inmates against the evidence they were convicted on.

If deterrence could be proven, which I'm fairly sure the opposite is true, imo, that would be the only "reasonable" pro-death penalty argument. Most everything else falls into the biblical/revenge category.

Would you like a shake with that fry?

I'm against it, but think that some crimes (mass/serial murder) should be settled by public stonings.

I feel about this issue about the same as I do about another firestorm issue: abortion.

I can see both sides.

But, overall, I feel that it is barbaric. And, seeing as how it costs taxpayers just as much to execute someone as it does to keep them sheltered and "fed" in prision for 30 years or so (after the appeals process), I see no logical reason why we should keep it. It's all about revenge.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
-Mohatma Ghandi

Of course, if it were somebody that I loved who were the victim, I would kill them myself, if given the chance.

I don't think it actually deters either so I suppose I'm against it. I do however think that the prison system does not concern itself enough with reform which is problematic to say the least.

Aren't crime rates also high in states with the death penalty? Aren't crime rates low in states without it?

Exactly. It astonishes me that we can feed/clothe/care for someone on death row much better than the poor homeless guy on the street. As much as I'd like to say that I'd exact revenge on a person who hurt someone close to me, I doubt I'd actually go through with it. As the old adage says, two wrongs don't make a right.

Forgiveness is a hard thing to deal with at times, but ultimately, I think it's the right thing to do. Most of the world probably wouldn't agree with me, though.

Where's the forgiveness in life without parole?

Hey, there are def. people I think deserve to die and that I might feel justified in going after. But that's me, and I can want revenge without thinking that that's appropriate for the gov't (or, more to the point, trusting the government to figure out who deserves to die and to get it right every time).

i guess in the not stoning them to death. wusses.

Against in all cases!