Should the U.S. Abolish the Death Penalty?

Should the U.S. Abolish the Death Penalty?

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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Deterrent Undeniable
  • zaneman1
    Weak defense of a fradulent principle

    D.A.'s Marquis' argument in favor of capital punishment makes little if any sense.

    Deterrence is one of the most fraulent principles in the history of mankind.

    A murder is commited for one of 3 following reasons :
    1.Profit(hitmen, drug dealers, or killing a spouse for life insurance)
    2.Passion(killing a cheating spouse)
    3.Compulsion (jeffery dahmer, son of sam, john couey, etc.)

    People who kill for profit do it rationally and are convinced they will get away with it.
    People who kill in passion cannot weigh risk/reward when they are flipped out.
    Finally, and worst, crimes of compulsion are violent acts that you cannot deter because it's a compulsion.

    Finally, the notion that a killer's ideas die with them as Marquis points out when he says the executions stop future murders is ridiculous.

    You don't believe me? just look at the neo-nazis/fourth reich type stuff.

    - zaneman1US June 27, 2009 12:41AM

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  • Josh Marquis
    Josh Marquis has been District Attorney of Clatsop County (Astoria) Oregon, since 1994. He is a former president of the Oregon District Attorney's Association... More

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