Thread: Weekly Crime Poll: Should Capital Punishment be Banned?

Weekly Crime Poll: Should Capital Punishment be Banned?

By Charles Montaldo, About.com Guide:

March 11, 2011

This week Illinois became the 16th state to ban capital punishment. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a law banning the death penalty starting July 1, 2011. He also commuted the sentences of the 15 inmates on death row to life sentences without parole.

In 2000, Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on executions after 13 death row inmates were exonerated, an act which Quinn has upheld.

Opponents of the ban argue that today's advancements in DNA technology and videotaped interrogations help protect the innocent against the possibilities of wrongful executions.

http://crime.about.com/b/2011/03/11/wee ... banned.htm

Once you get to the poll click on (Yes, No or Undecided ) for your answer of the death penalty ban.

My answer is no, because there are some very dangerous crime offenders in society.

Moved from General Discussion to Polls

Absolutely not!

My answer is No and we should ban the Capitol too!!!!


Kathyet

My answer is no.Talk about prison cost think of the money saved if they would put them to death.If a dog bites someone they dont think twice about putting it down.

Hell, I think Capital Punishment should be expanded. Wheres my vote selection?

With anything there will always be a risk of the wrong person getting hurt matter what you do in anything. Far as Crime goes you put a dangerous person in prison for 20 years and they are released able to do the same criminal activities again killing, murdering, and raping more. You put them in Prison for life and you risk Prison guards and also other prisoners who may only be in for small stuff like theft or minor drug possession. Really who cares if 1 rapist kills another rapist but we should consider the rights of someone in for small time criminal activitity getting hurt or killed.

Now with Capital Punishment where do you draw the line is what matters. I don't have the exact numbers on this stuff anymore but the vast majority of major offenders become repeat offenders and this goes for murderers and rapists. Now if you end the life of 9 murderers and 1 innocent yes 1 innocent is lost. But no one wants to talk about the innocents those 9 murderers if left alive would have murdered. So if statistics showed each murderer if left alive will commit 1 more murder either within prison or if released.... is the 9 innocents killed worth the 1 innocent lost from capital punishment? What if the statistics were 1/100 were innocent and for every 99 guilty you put down 1 innocent was put down?

I see it as saving lives, long as you have stringent standards for convicting death penalty cases the innocent factor should be minimal and the lives saved by the guilty would be far greater.

Not to mention how many Citizens does it hurt and impact when we have to pay $80-90k a year for a max security prison to house these scum? Those tax dollars could be going to educate the young, create programs for keeping the young out of crime, keeping people from feeling the need to turn to crime, and so forth.

I remember an analogy from Swordfish where John Travolta speaks about "if you have the ability to save 1,000 people but at the cost of 1 little girls life is it worth it?" Is that 1 life more sacred then the 1,000 you could save? Shouldn't the goal to always help the majority of interests?

Poll Results
Should capital punishment be banned?
Yes
(69)
23%

No
(209)
70%

Undecided
(20)
6%

Total Votes: 298