I've thought about this before and have come to the personal conclusion that the death sentence is not effective. A proper thesis for my frame of mind would be the following:

"Capital punishment is inequitable and its lack of deterrence corroborates the ineffectiveness on our country. "

This question comes from the assumption that you do value human life.

Do any of you have any opinions on this matter? :ph43r:

I have considered this topic before, actually...

Capital punishment is ineffective because it has been shown to not prevent violent crimes such as homicide. This is obviously because these are (generally) crimes of passion in which the perpetrator is incapable of reasoning before he/she commits the act on emotional impulse.

Also, it is inhumane because it undermines the value of human life. Also, the death penalty in the long run is more expensive to tax payers than life in prison without paroll. This is because of all of the appeal processes involved in death penalty cases. Also, the death penalty sends the message that vengeance is good. I don't believe there is any evidence that relatives of victims end up recovering from their loss because of any satisfaction of revenge or justice they derive from witnessing an execution.

Wolf's right, these days the only people who reason before they kill are Muslims. And nine times out of ten we can't send them to the chop (for one reason or another) That's harsh yes, but it also turns the question into what about human life is to be valued. Often people in dangerous situations are kept alive because of a special something about them. That could easily be transferred into a redeeming quality. I.E. What if Tim McVeigh repented and then cured cancer. Or what if a famous philanthropist commited an emotional crime, would all of his past good undo a violent squabble?

[QUOTE]
C.S. Lewis wrote, “…[deterrence] in itself, would be a very wicked thing to do. Within the classical theory of punishment it was of course justified on the ground that the man deserved it. Why, in heaven’s name, am I to be sacrificed to the good of society in this way- unless, of course, I deserve it.” ....“To be cured against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who ever will…but to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we ‘ought to have known better’, is to be treated as a human person made in God’s image.”
Just some interesting quotes from C.S. Lewis...Humanitarian Theory of Punishment essay...

But if it is a crime of passion, then the murderer really didn't know better. I even wonder is he/she would be capable of knowing better in that state of mind, there is no reasoning of consequences or right and wrong. If so, then how can you say they "ought to have known it was wrong" when they weren't capable of doing so?

Can we know he really didn't know better? Maybe he just didn't care? Who is to say he is insane or whatever they want to call a person who is "[i]ncapable" of knowing better?

We might not know for sure, but I, for one, would rather err on the side of life.

What would you suggest as a punishment instead of death?

Life sentence.

with or without parole?

If they originally would have been considered for capital punishment? I would say without parole.

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