Capital Punishment

[DraganOfStip]

Today,October 10th is the World day against capital punishment.
Тhe last capital punishment in Macedonia was carried out in 1987 by a firing squad.
Today all European countries except Belarus have abolished the capital punishment.
What are your thoughts,should or should not capital punishment exist in the modern age?

[Soldier of Macedon]

What are your thoughts,should or should not capital punishment exist in the modern age?

I have somewhat conflicting thoughts about this issue, but if a choice had to be made in a legal context, I would be against capital punishment as it stands at this time. It is not because I feel any sympathy for those that have taken and ruined lives (nor do I wish for honest tax payers to fund their continued existence), but there have been many people wrongfully convicted and subsequently exonerated several years later. Some people also truly repent for their actions and make genuine attempts to rehabilitate (though I am not sure I find that acceptable for some brutal crimes). Further, the consistent application of such a punishment could prove to be problematic. Take for example a situation where a father kills a man several months after the latter raped and murdered his child. Both would be guilty of 'premeditated' murder, but it could be argued that only one of them deserved to die. Could such parameters be clearly defined? Would that open a range of other problems such as more frequent revenge killings? What if it was later revealed that the man killed by the father was actually innocent of the crime?

Definitely a complicated issue. What are your thoughts on it, Dragan?

[vicsinad]

I have somewhat conflicting thoughts about this issue, but if a choice had to be made in a legal context, I would be against capital punishment as it stands at this time. It is not because I feel any sympathy for those that have taken and ruined lives (nor do I wish for honest tax payers to fund their continued existence), but there have been many people wrongfully convicted and subsequently exonerated several years later. Some people also truly repent for their actions and make genuine attempts to rehabilitate (though I am not sure I find that acceptable for some brutal crimes). Further, the consistent application of such a punishment could prove to be problematic. Take for example a situation where a father kills a man several months after the latter raped and murdered his child. Both would be guilty of 'premeditated' murder, but it could be argued that only one of them deserved to die. Could such parameters be clearly defined? Would that open a range of other problems such as more frequent revenge killings? What if it was later revealed that the man killed by the father was actually innocent of the crime?

I'm in the same boat as you.

[spitfire]

Capital punishment is based on the view that a punishment should be the same as the crime. And this is where the problem starts.
The other alternative is life imprisonment, which I don't know if it is worse than capital punishment. There is also the matter of life imprisonment that is not for life actually, but you are let go after 20 years, or 16 years in jail provided that you behave well.

And to make matters more complicated, some types of perfoming capital punishment could be considered as excessive and therefore out of the sense of equal punishment for equal crimes. The case with deadly injections where there are cases that the convicted suffers a more painful death than the one his victim suffered.

[George S.]

capital punishment is a complicated issue.Its the ultimate price to pay by taking ones life.Not having capital punishment is a sign of a civilised society.Is it ??Also for example if you have like a massmurderer how do you punish them,with multiple sentencing of lifetimes??Don't they desrve capital punishment.Some religious people beleive for a eye for an eye life for life.What's wrong with that??You kill someone you be killed as well in return.In some islamic countries it's still practiced.
I'm actually for capital punishment in some ways.The reason being where the offender is a high risk to the public.Also think of the cost prisoners have on the taxpayer.
In some cases capital punishment should be allowed

[Gocka]

I don't think you can claim to be part of a civilized society while calling for blood. That's my take on it.

I think people who have done something so horrible to warrant the death penalty should just be enslaved instead, somehow he should be made useful to the society that he wronged.

I think its stupid to house, feed, and in many cases pamper those who have committed crimes.

In the USA they get healthcare, something which a large portion of Americans don't have, three meals a day, again something that many don't have, TV, hobbies, magazines, heat.

All criminals should be forced to work, or in one way or another repay society.

I just wanted to add something that was in the news receently. In the USA, in the New York area last year it cost about $96,000 (USD) to house an inmate for 1 year. The minimum wage in the USA at the moment is $15,000 per year, the median household income, $51,000 per year. So a working class person is expected to survive on 6.5x less money than what is spent on an inmate. A family is expected to live off half what it costs to house a single inmate. Why do you think that is? Just like everything else in the USA, jails are privately owned and operated but paid for by taxpayer money. They get free health care but for an average American to buy a health insurance policy out of pocket would cost around $1200 per month for a shit plan.

Rant over

[DraganOfStip]

What are your thoughts on it, Dragan?

I also have conflicting thoughts about this,but I reckon I'd go with Gocka here.They should be imprisoned for life and forced to do hard labor.
I have read somewhere that all the German POW's in the Soviet Union (at least the few of them that survived) were returned home only after the renewal of Soviet villages,towns,roads etc that the Third Reich destroyed in the war.
Something like that should be applied I guess.

[Risto the Great]

I have a client involved in the prison industry. He tells me one of the jails here in South Australia gives you a sheet allowing you to select your meals for the day (like a hospital).

He also said you can have pets. Though they stopped letting cats be included due to one man's ummm misdirected affection.

Lovely.

I just wanted to add something that was in the news receently. In the USA, in the New York area last year it cost about $96,000 (USD) to house an inmate for 1 year. The minimum wage in the USA at the moment is $15,000 per year, the median household income, $51,000 per year. So a working class person is expected to survive on 6.5x less money than what is spent on an inmate. A family is expected to live off half what it costs to house a single inmate. Why do you think that is? Just like everything else in the USA, jails are privately owned and operated but paid for by taxpayer money. They get free health care but for an average American to buy a health insurance policy out of pocket would cost around $1200 per month for a shit plan.

$1200 per month? Mate, your country is shit!. Step back and really look at that with fresh eyes.

[George S.]

Money is juzt wasted snd the inmates arent properly rehabilitated how can yhey come back to societ?

[Gocka]

The health insurance plan I have through my job is $1450 per month of which I pay $300 and the company pays $1150. Before my health insurance even pays for my expenses I must pay $1500 out of pocket during the year, after I have spent $1500 out of pocket the insurance starts paying for my expenses. Every calendar year the $1500 out of pocket limit is reset. Even after the $1500 per month is met the insurance still doesn't pay everything. there are still things like coinsurance, where for certain costs the insurance only pays 80%-90% and I pay the rest.

If I were to quit my job or get fired I would have to pay the whole premium of $1450 per month out of pocket or else I would have no insurance.

The worst part about all that is that I have a pretty good health insurance plan.

A plan that is a $1000 per month pretty much pays for nothing.

Then there is the people who have no insurance and pay everything out of pocket.

Meanwhile murderers have 100% coverage. Go figure.

$1200 per month? Mate, your country is shit!. Step back and really look at that with fresh eyes.