Capital Punishment

[dissentowner]

Here we go with another sensitive topic. Do you support the death penalty?
The opposition tends to argue it is wrong to take a human life. The pro crowd will tell you these criminals are not humans, they are monsters. People opposed to the death penalty will claim it is more expensive to execute someone then for them to spend life in prison. The people for will argue those numbers are not true as they don't take into account the life in prison appeal process yet they add in the death row appeals to inflate the numbers. They also don't take into account all the expense for medical treatment and other expenses a lifer racks up. The opposition will argue innocent people have been put on death row and proven innocent, therefore the risk of executing an innocent person is too risky. The for crowd will point to the advancements in DNA technology and that with concrete DNA evidence nobody innocent is going on death row.
A poll by the Toronto Star in 2012 had 63% in support of bringing back the death penalty in certain circumstances.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...oll_finds.html

So my question to you CP is as follows, if the evidence leaves no doubt do you support the return of the death penalty in Canada? So far discussions in these topics have been outstanding and personal attacks have not been an issue, lets keep it that way and thanks.


I will try and get a mod to add a poll as I can't add one anymore.

[JiriHrdina]

What do you want the poll answers to be? Yes/No/Not sure?

[nik-]

I don't support it.

A: there's no correlation between the death penalty and lower rates of applicable crimes
B: it costs more
C: it's vengeance, not justice
D: there's no 100% certainty in criminal court decisions.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

What do you want the poll answers to be? Yes/No/Not sure?

Those sound good. Thank you.

[JiriHrdina]

Yeah I think when you start saying "no doubt" you are requiring a burden of proof that is impossible to actually reach. So if one needs there to be "no doubt" for capital punishment to be the sentence, then to me it means you don't have capital punishment.

[calgarygeologist]

I support the death penalty but bringing it back would be largely a symbolic gesture. Punishment is too lenient in Canada and I would be surprised to see the death penalty assigned more than once or twice in a decade if it was available.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by nik-

I don't support it.

A: there's no correlation between the death penalty and lower rates of applicable crimes
B: it costs more
C: it's vengeance, not justice
D: there's no 100% certainty in criminal court decisions.

Nailed it 100%

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by nik-

I don't support it.

A: there's no correlation between the death penalty and lower rates of applicable crimes
B: it costs more
C: it's vengeance, not justice
D: there's no 100% certainty in criminal court decisions.

B and D are good points, but what's wrong with vengence? Personally, I like it.

[Dan02]

supporting capital punishment makes me no better then a murderer, my conscience rests a lot easier with just locking them up for life.

[GGG]

It's also cheaper in the U.S. to keep a person in prison for life then to kill him.

You also need to accept that If you have capital punishment that you eventually will kill an innocent person regardless of safeguards. So anyone in favour of capital punishment also believes that eventually killing an innocent person is an acceptable consequence in order to get revenge

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Sliver

B and D are good points, but what's wrong with vengence? Personally, I like it.

Is there any evidence that revenge helps victims?

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Where's the option for "Only for special cases involving the creation of poll threads."?

[para transit fellow]

When this case was overturned:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Paul_Morin

The trail went cold and the killer never found

[para transit fellow]

Originally Posted by Sliver

B and D are good points, but what's wrong with vengence? Personally, I like it.

There is never enough vengeance...

[Clever_Iggy]

I voted "undecided" but largely agree with nik's post. However, the vengeance issue is difficult for me. If it was my loved one I would want to pull the lever myself.

Given a "yes/no" only choice I would probably vote no.

[Cube Inmate]

Unfortunately, no.

I hate the idea that the truly terrible people in society are still alive; still breathing; still consuming valuable resources. I hate that some of them are still able, from behind bars, to negatively affect their victims or victims' families. Throwing them out with the trash is a much more satisfying idea, at least in the context of our raw emotions.

But state-sponsored execution just somehow crosses the moral line for me. Even if it's not actually me pushing the button / depressing the syringe / pulling the trigger...I'm still enabling it if I support the state.

A better idea...!

Instead of actually executing people, we hold them in prison for 25 years and then apply a blanket "murder waiver" on them for the rest of their lives. We don't actually kill them, but agree to waive the prosecution of anybody who does happen to do them harm!

[N-E-B]

I'm vengeful, but just killing someone isn't the way to go. Let them rot alone in a cement cell.

[AltaGuy]

I can't justify giving the State the right to kill people.

[Thor]

Nope, never.

[FlamesAddiction]

I would say yes, in extreme cases where there is no doubt (i.e. caught red handed), but my issue is that in countries where it does exist, it usually isn't applied equally among demographics. It ends up being a way to punish minorities or people who can't defend themselves. It's a tool that can be too easily exploited for the wrong reasons.

(I picked unsure)