I agree, these people must not get out. So let's keep them in.

I see this as an enforcement problem, not as an indication that the sentence is inappropriate.

Agreed. Like I said a moment ago, that is supposed to be the reason prisons exist.

That's a part of the rehab process.

But not all criminals are the most hardcore. Few in our prison system would really not be able to benefit from it. If I'm not mistaken, much of the prison problem in our country has a lot to due with drugs and addictions. Most want to break their habits and have a clean life, but can't seem to find an avenue for doing such in our system. Many criminals in our prison system are reoccurring.

I think it's acceptable to kill a human being who has taken the life(s) of another. People like Timothy McVeigh DO NOT deserve the right to life. Please don't tell me you could care less if people like McVeigh were still alive today.

Understood. But war and capital punishment are two completely opposite topics.

*Not if you are the President sending troops to kill people
Kill people who have committed acts of terrorism (those who want Americans dead)

*Not if you are a soldier in a declared war
The soldier is defending their Country. Again, I would keep war and capital punishment separate.

*Not if you are the governer executing a prisoner
Someone has to do it. Whomever it is has no right to life, so I feel it is right in taking it away.

Which is why I believe capital punishment should only be administered in cases where there is DNA or hard evidence (science, video, photographs) proving the person guilty.

Death Penalty Focus

There are many reasons the death penalty should be abolished. It is a complex issue and it is difficult to point to any single fact or argument as the most important. Below are a number of extremely valid reasons that the state of California should stop the practice of capital punishment.

Executions are carried out at staggering cost to taxpayers.
It costs far more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life. A recent New Jersey Policy Perspectives report concluded that the state's death penalty has cost taxpayers $253 million since 1983, a figure that is over and above the costs that would have been incurred had the state utilized a sentence of life without parole instead of death. "From a strictly financial perspective, it is hard to reach a conclusion other than this: New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one," the report concluded. Michael Murphy, former Morris County, NJ prosecutor, remarked: "If you were to ask me how $11 million a year could best protect the people of New Jersey, I would tell you by giving the law enforcement community more resources. I'm not interested in hypotheticals or abstractions, I want the tools for law enforcement to do their job, and $11 million can buy a lot of tools."


Capital punishment does not deter crime.
Scientific studies have consistently failed to demonstrate that executions deter people from committing crime anymore than long prison sentences. Moreover, states without the death penalty have much lower murder rates. The South accounts for 80% of US executions and has the highest regional murder rate.


The USA is unable to prevent accidental execution of innocent people.
The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty, 123 men and women have been released from Death Row nationally....some only minutes away from execution. Moreover, in the past two years evidence has come to light which indicates that four men may have been wrongfully EXECEUTED in recent years for crimes they did not commit. This error rate is simply appalling, and completely unacceptable, when we are talking about life and death.


Race plays a role in determining who lives and who dies.
Race is an important factor in determining who is sentenced to die. In 1990 a report from the General Accounting Office concluded that "in 82 percent of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e. those who murdered whites were more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks."


The death penalty is applied at random.
Politics, quality of legal counsel and the jurisdiction where a crime is committed are more often the determining factors in a death penalty case than the facts of the crime itself. The death penalty is a lethal lottery: of the 22,000 homicides committed every year aproximately 150 people are sentenced to death.


Capital punishment goes against almost every religion.
Although isolated passages of religious scripture have been quoted in support of the death penalty, almost all religious groups in the United States regard executions as immoral.


The USA is keeping company with notorious human rights abusers.
The vast majority of countries in Western Europe, North America and South America — more than 128 nations worldwide — have abandoned capital punishment in law or in practice. The United States remains in the same company as Iraq, Iran and China as one of the major advocates and users of capital punishment.


Millions could be diverted to helping the families of murder victims.
Many family members who have lost love ones to murder feel that the death penalty will not heal their wounds nor will it end their pain; the extended process prior to executions can prolong the agony experienced by the family. Funds now being used for the costly process of executions could be used to help families put their lives back together through counseling, restitution, crime victim hotlines, and other services addressing their needs.


Bad Lawyers are a Persistent Problem
Perhaps the most important factor in determining whether a defendant will receive the death penalty is the quality of the representation he or she is provided. Almost all defendants in capital cases cannot afford their own attorneys. In many cases, the appointed attorneys are overworked, underpaid, or lacking the trial experience required for death penalty cases. There have even been instances in which lawyers appointed to a death case were so inexperienced that they were completely unprepared for the sentencing phase of the trial. Other appointed attorneys have slept through parts of the trial, or arrived at the court under the influence of alcohol.


Life Without Parole is a Sensible Alternative to the Death Penalty
California judges have the option of sentencing convicted capital murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole. There are currently over 3,300 people in California who have received this alternative sentence which includes a limited appeals process. The sentence is cheaper to tax-payers and keeps violent offenders off the streets for good. According to the Governor's Office, only seven people sentenced to life without parole has been released since the state provided for this option in 1977, and this occurred because they were able to prove their innocence. Unlike the death penalty, a sentence of Life Without Parole allows mistakes to be corrected.

Mental Illness and the Death Penalty


Quick Facts

- Mental illness is defined as "Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma."

- Since 1983, over 60 people with mental illness or retardation have been executed in the United States.

- It is estimated that 5-10% of Death Row inmates suffer from serious mental illness.

- Research has shown that nearly all Death Row inmates suffer from brain damage due to illness or trauma, while a vast number have also experienced histories of severe physical and/or sexual abuse.

- Mental illness is not only a problem on Death Row. In 1998, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that 283,000 mentally ill individuals were incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons.

- Legislation has been passed barring the execution of juvenile or mentally retarded individuals. While it is unconstitutional to execute the insane, those suffering from other or lesser mental illnesses are insufficiently protected under the law.