The death penalty has provoked heated discussion since biblical times, and today the debate remains as controversial as ever. Is such a sentence ever justified? Capital punishment is an intensely emotional topic for everyone involved because it sits at the intersection of life, death and the very definition of the word 'justice.'
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I have wished that the death penalty could be implemented in heinous multiple murder cases. After experience in the justice system from the left side of the drug war I no longer believe in the death penalty, the system is corrupt and biased. We know that Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks yet the Bush administration attacked Iraq and many a war profiteer around the administration made millions and billions. They never sought out the accused 9/11 CIA operative Osama Bin Laden. Add torture and illegal spying to obvious Bush Administration crimes. Also we have never had a proper investigation of the administration's complacency involving the 9/11 attacks. If you believe that as a district attorney that you have the power , right and a just method to seek the death penalty in first degree murder cases; it is your duty to bring murder, torture and conspiracy charges against the Bush administration defendants. There is so much publicly available evidence that Iraqi people and US soldiers died so people around Bush could profit from war. It is your duty and the duty of every district attorney in the US to bring war crimes charges against Bush and others in his administration. Would you ask the death penalty when you prosecute Bush and company? If not the US undeniably remains rouge state and therefore you cannot honestly seek the death penalty in and murder case.
- atliberty
March 30, 2009 10:43AM
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This is very poor argument by Amnesty Intl., as is the case with all of their anti death penalty efforts.
AI's logic is this.
The death penalty and the US must be bad, because a bunch of bad countries use the death penalty.
What nonsense.
Simply because the US shares a public policy with"bad" countries doesn't make either the US or that policy "bad".
For example, some really bad countries do not have the death penalty. So, why doesn't AI say all of those countries and that public policy position is bad? Guess.
In their anti death penalty positions, AI shows a particular lack of reason.
- dudleysharp June 15, 2009 9:15AM
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The Death Penalty is a Denial of Human Rights
- From Amnesty
By Amnesty International - Working to Protect Human Rights
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What about the human rights of the victim ?
The death penalty should not be abolished but should only be applied to the most reprehensible individuals. The cruel and degrading aspect only comes into play because of the extremely long appeals process. We need to have it shortened.
- redondo July 14, 2008 10:33PM
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think about it!
The U.S. should abolish the Death Penalty because death is no penalty.
- Monitor July 28, 2008 11:28AM
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Not so sure.
Almost all people, who receive the death penalty, have schown by their heinous acts, that they are destitute of a moral sense. But this makes them just more or less intelligent animals. Animals have no human rights.
- eXtremeLogic July 28, 2008 5:30PM
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Is the right to exist absolute?
A right to exist is true if and only if the being in question is in harmony with its surroundings. Cancer are cells that are not inharmony with the body. The cancer does not have a right to exist and is therefore erradicated.
People who murder intentionally and repeatedly are not inharmony with their surroundings-that is society. Therefore, their right to exist is forfeited and therefore should be exterminated.
But, this argument is only valid when the assumption is made that all or some individuals are permanently incapable of living harmoniously within society. Inotherwords, are humans more akin to a tool, fixed to one function? Or are they more like a violin, a tool that is capable of functioning in harmony with other tools.
The root of the argument comes down to this. Is the right to exist absolute? If it is then the argument against the death penalty is sound. But if the right to exist is not absolute then the argument for the death penalt is sound.
- tallguy August 12, 2008 7:30AM
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the problem is that the courts.
our society is run by oppressive criminals. on every tere in every faction of society. Dirty people. they do not want to see any kind of reprisals for their existence . These people, in the lap of luxury have no need for such perspectives. In my opinion every liar should be sentenced to death. I'm not saying that those who don't know the wing speed of an unladen swallow be condemned, but as society goal, that's what we need to work for. There was a story in the paper. a man broke into someone's home and was found pawing at these people's 5 year old daughter with a tube sex lube in his hand. He got away but was caught later. In new jersey, this man is considered a hero. The police can not touch him. He was taken to a club resort in a nice rural area. It house 750 others sexual offenders at the expense of over 200 million dollars to the tax payer.
I say simply execute the guilty parties. the guilty being everyone who remove this man from justice. I advocate death for his parents , his school teachers, the court room, the leigislatures, ect ect. I just don't belive having your home viloated and your 5 year old violated, is acceptable society.
The liberals don't agree. I would rather not live with those people, and there is no european destination free of the liberal. In eesence, you can no long have children free of the tyranny of satanic an evil librals. that's very simple. my solution is simply too. starve the people.
You shall wither and die.
- jxzac April 16, 2009 9:28AM
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The Death Penalty: Not a Human Rights Violation
The Death Penalty: Not a Human Rights Violation
Dudley Sharp, contact info below
Some wrongly state that executions are a human rights violation. The human rights violation argument often comes from European leadership and human rights organizations.
The argument is as follows: Life is a fundamental human right. Therefore, taking it away is a fundamental violation of human rights.
Those who say that the death penalty is a human rights violation have no solid moral or philosophical foundation for making such a statement. What opponents of capital punishment really are saying is that they just don't approve of executions.
Certainly, both freedom and life are fundamental human rights. On this, there is virtually no disagreement. However, again, virtually all agree, that freedom may be taken away when there is a violation of the social contract. Freedom, a fundamental human right, may be taken away from those who violate society 's laws.
So to is the fundamental human right of life forfeit when the violation of the social contract is most grave.
No one disputes that taking freedom away is a different result than taking life away. However, the issue is the incorrect claim that taking away fundamental human rights -- be that freedom or life -- is a human rights violation. It is not. It depends specifically on the circumstances.
How do we know? Because those very same governments and human rights stalwarts, rightly, tell us so. Universally, both governments and human rights organizations approve and encourage taking away the fundamental human right of freedom, as a proper response to some criminal activity.
Why do governments and human rights organizations not condemn just incarceration of criminals as a fundamental human rights violation? Because they think incarceration is just fine.
Why do some of those same groups condemn execution as a human rights violation? Only because they don't like it. They have no moral or philosophical foundation for calling execution a human rights violation.
In the context of criminals violating the social contract, those criminals have voluntarily subjected themselves to the laws of the state. And they have knowingly placed themselves in a position where their fundamental human rights of freedom and life are subject to being forfeit by their actions.
Opinion is only worth the value of its foundation. Those who call execution a human rights violation have no credible foundation for that claim. What they are really saying is "We just don't like it."
copyright 2005-2009, Dudley Sharp
Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters
e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas
- dudleysharp
June 15, 2009 4:18AM
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Being Pro-Life I struggled with this one until
I spoke to a priest and he said that self defense such as in war time or when we are defending ourselves from an intruder or protecting someone else from an intruder is acceptable even if that defense should lead to death and is not murder . When we discussed whether the death penalty was murder he said that if the person cannot be rehabilitated then the death penalty is no different than self defense since this person is a danger to himself and society it is self defense or the defense of someone elses life to put this person to death. I agree with his explanation and from that day forward have had no problems with the death penalty. I do however have problems with men running their corrupted system and too often use the criminal and judicial system to harm good men/woman due to vast corruption.
So I say start by executing all corrupted officials in the police forces and judicial systems and then work up to the political systems and then I bet the rest would take notice and youd have to do fewer executions in the private sector. You think?
- angelmama
August 19, 2009 1:57PM
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the closest
I think this is the closest you've come to saying something I agree with...
The death penalty , as currently applied, is fought with both errors and corruption. Far to many cases have been overturned years later of me to have any comfort in how the death penalty is applied. Advocating for the death penalty means accepting that sometimes the government will execute someone who is innocent (even if we somehow removed all of the corruption from the system there would still be errors). That is something that I cannot accept in good conscience.
"So I say start by executing all corrupted officials in the police forces and judicial systems and then work up to the political systems and then I bet the rest would take notice and youd have to do fewer executions in the private sector."
There are plenty of people that I think should be 'Wed to the rope-makers daughter and taught to fly'... but that is an emotional response, and thus is not useful in making rational decisions.
- MrBook
September 9, 2009 6:42AM
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