Posted on 07/19/2019 7:17:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
In 2018 25 persons were put to death by the United States. They ranged from 31 years old to 83 and all were convicted by courts, and those convictions affirmed by further courts, that found them guilty of heinous, horrid, disgusting crimes against their fellow man.
Despite that, I believe that their deaths were wrong.
The death penalty in the United States is seldom used. 25 states have either abolished it entirely or declared a moratorium on its use. Almost a dozen other states have not executed a person in years. Yet it still remains on the books and is more than a paper statute, as every year Americans face the prospect of their own government not only having the right to take their freedom and property but their life as well.
America shares this curious characteristic with nations such as Iran, North Korea, the People’s Republic of China, Sudan, Libya, and others with human rights records needless to describe. From 2007 to 2012 America stood fifth in the world in the number of executions.
The liberal argument against the death penalty has always come from the side of compassion, rehabilitation, cost comparisons, and the always present potential of “getting the wrong person.” The conservative argument, however, which is growing, stems from the worry that the government is able to deprive a citizen of something as fundamental as one’s own very life.
Support for the death penalty is now at historic lows. In 2016, for the first time in 45 years, the death penalty fell below majority support among Americans. Young people favor the death penalty far, far less than their older cohorts. Support for the death penalty has declined dramatically among independents and Democrats in recent years and is trending downwards among Republicans.
The Founding Fathers themselves had significant qualms with how the idea of capital punishment, then common in a far more savage world, complied with their ideas of a government based on God-given rights and a social contract.
The fact is that the death penalty is a remnant of a far more brutish time when life was seen as far more cheap, passing, and, sadly, expendable. When countless of one’s fellow innocent citizens died from disease, war, crime, and accidents on a daily basis it seems preposterous to spend time caring for the well-being of those who were adjudged in certainty to have committed truly evil acts.
We’ve seen in many nations across the world how this power has quickly fallen into abominable depravity, such as the “Bloody Code” in 1700’s England that permitted capital punishment for acts such as pickpocketing or cutting down trees. In the worst cases, we’ve seen whirlpools of cruelty form such as the Great Purge in 1930’s the Soviet Union or the Reign of Terror in France, as thousands upon thousands were executed in a sudden surge of barbarism and government overreach.
We are a far ways away from such atrocities, yet that human life is precious and endowed with God-given liberty should be remembered and can be a shield to such monstrous abuses in the future.
A society that values human liberty is irreconcilable with the institution or even permitting, of the death penalty. Until we, as Americans, iron out that contradiction – through perhaps a constitutional amendment that would apply not only to federal prosecutions but state ones too – our liberty is not secure.
I agree. I do not believe the death penalty is wrong as a matter of principle — society has the right to defend itself — but in practice I don’t trust the government to implement this right properly.
I might listen to anti-death penalty proponents when they come to the same reasoning against abortion. Why is it ok to kill the unborn, but not okay to kill the guilty murderers?
We need to use the death penalty more often, not less.
The reforms that need to be made are whatever method used should be dirt cheap and they should happen much sooner after conviction.
I’ve personally told anti-death penalty Rats many times: ‘”Let’s make a deal, I’ll give up capital punishment if you give up abortion.”
Silence.
Silence.
No takers.
It’s far more important for them to butcher innocent unborn and born babies.
The bible says rape, murder and kidnapping are death penalty sins.
you were saying?
Is there a study comparing the murder rate in death penalty states vs no death penalty states?
A society that values human liberty is irreconcilable with the institution or even permitting, of the death penalty. Until we, as Americans, iron out that contradiction – through perhaps a constitutional amendment that would apply not only to federal prosecutions but state ones too – our liberty is not secure.
I’m not sure this makes sense. Our liberty is threatened by many other forces in the world besides the death penalty. Even if one accepts the premise that the existence of the death penalty threatens our liberty, I can’t understand what this person is trying to say here.
So then to him, all of American history is tainted, and America itself is a worthless valueless society, because we have permitted the death penalty?
Not “Overreach”.
You abuse your liberty, you lose it.
Oh God.
So, he states they “not only have right to take freedom and property but lives...”
Hmmm. Does that mean government should NOT be in the prison business EITHER?
So maybe we just give 5em fines and let them all walk around continuously, huh?
Looks like as of 2016 there was a murder rate of 5.67% in non-death penalty states and a 4.49% in death penalty states.
Well, that does apply to 95% of Dems. But not necessarily every person.
If they did away with parole for murderers I might listen. But I don’t think that’s happening.
“You abuse your liberty, you lose it.”
And you trust our government and judicial system to fairly determine when an abuse of liberty warrants execution?
I have never understood how those who claim to want to limit the powers of government can also want to reserve for that same government the right to kill its own citizens.
You virtually never get that for capital crimes, unless you can convince an accessory to plea-bargain and turn state's evidence against the perp.
What is the statistic actually measuring?
This is not a "challenge" question, this is just a point of clarification.
True if the guy insists he is innocent but we have hundreds of people who confess to death penalty level crimes.
And profitable also. Look at the money that made in the selling of aborted baby parts. all profit too, plus you can bet that the Democrat Party gets a cut of the profits. If they did not, they would have hut it down long ago.
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