When the time comes to choose a lawyer, will you know the type that you need?. If your legal problem is complex or involves lots of money, you definitely do NOT want to represent yourself. The money you save will end up costing you dearly in the long…

Mary,
“The murderer of my two friends is getting out next month..who’s to say he won’t do it again?”

And who’s to say he will? Your crystal ball?

The reason the death penalty in Kansas is said to NOT be a determent is because it is not carried out. To be effective we should construct gallows on the courthouse lawn and require all school age kids to be present. Let them see what could happen if you commit such a crime. Our society is such a bunch of wussies. Hang em and hang em high.

1) there is no evidence that a death penalty has any significant deterrent effect in preventing murders (aside from the person executed, of course)

2) it costs significantly more to prosecute a capital case and defend the conviction on appeal than it does to keep a prisoner in prison for life

3) there is the certainty that persons have been, and will be, executed for crimes they did not commit; not because of any evil intent, but simply because human beings are fallible and will make mistakes

why do we have a death penalty at all?

As a practical matter, the costs are not worth the benefits.

Abolish it, except perhaps for one case – the long-term prisoner (say 20 yrs +) who kills in prison, simply because there is little other deterrent available.
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GMC, I agree with you 100%

No, I’d want to keep them physically healthy as long as possible. That requires a nourishing, if tasteless diet. And given the amount of unstructured time prisoners have on their hands, they’d figure out some way to use those cyanide capsules on the guards or each other.

Please try to keep in mind that DNA is a molecule. It only becomes evidence when interpreted by a human being who is just as fallible as the rest of us. No evidence is “unrefutable,”

Scary. I have heard of this before – sociopaths who are destined to kill. How do we stop that? Is there a way?

“…the death penalty is far too easy a way out for the really heinous murderers. They should live long lives exiled as much as possible from any human contact.”

Not all that many years ago, a friend of mine had to do 30 days in the Neosho County (Kansas) county jail. At the time (I have no idea how it works now), the sheriff had control of the meals budget; something like $10 per inmate per day. He hired his wife and she provided two meals a day: at about 10 am prisoners got half a baloney sandwich and half a cheese sandwich. For “dinner,” around four o’clock, they got the other halves of the baloney and cheese sandwiches.

I’ve seen those shows on cable about the various prisons. Super-Max is incredibly expensive, but it seems like appropriate punishment to me (with the Neosho County jail diet thrown in).

But I’d add one other element. In every cell there’d be a cyanide capsule available for the inmate to use or not use any time s/he chooses.

But I have deep and sincere doubts about the judicial system’s way of meting out criminal penalties. The same kinds of people who, for example, returned the multi-million dollar hot coffee verdict against McDonald’s were on the juries a few years back in Illinois who condemned the 8 men who were later proven by DNA evidence to be innocent of the crimes that put them on Death Row. The judicial system is inherently flawed because it depends on inherently-flawed human beings. And there’s no way to rectify an unjust execution. That’s the rub.

Whether an unjust conviction is due to bad lawyers, bad juries, bad evidence, over-zealous prosecutors, incompetent judges, bad luck… it seems to me that a system that aspires to justice should have in its intrinsic structure the capability to right wrongs. And there’s no way to un-do an execution.

And it’s altogether too easy to put people on death row and kill them.

If there is to be a death penalty — and I see no constitutional provision in the United States to prevent it — I think the death warrant should be signed by the governor (or President) in the presence of the condemned, and only after a face-to-face meeting. I think, instead of simply signing a piece of paper, the Chief Executive of the state or nation should be required to pull the switch him/herself. And if — as it could very
well have happened in Illinois where fully half the prisoners on Death Row were conclusively proven innocent — a person is put to death unjustly, the governor and the trial judge and the jury members responsible should be summarily executed for murder.

As a practical matter, though, I suspect most Death Penalty politicians lack the cajones to sign a death warrant if their own lives were on the line.

Later, they were exonerated.

I am not suggesting that Rader or the Carr Brothers are innocent, but the juries that convicted the 129 were just as sure that the condemned were guilty as we are that those on Death Row in Kansas are guilty.

Let’s not compound the tragedy of murder by executing innocent people.

Hey, that’s my line! I love it though.

There’s a rather vicious punishment I always thought fit the crime of rape. Nail their member to a tree stump, set the stump on fire and hand them a broken beer bottle. Let them make the choice.

I have no mercy for those who had none for their victims. And some thought I was just a bleeding heart ‘you people’ liberal. : ) Just proves there is no ‘one size fits all’ label.

No. Making the punishment match that of the crime would not be justice because it would mean sinking to the base level of the criminal. Such would not befit a civilized society.

No, it’s revenge. And yet, once the death penalty has been carried through, the family and friends of the victim still aren’t always able to move on. Killing the killer isn’t the answer. In fact, capital punishment gives them release.

I agree with GMC70 because of the points he stated and have for some time. Several years ago I listened to a local radio program and heard those same points discussed by local prosecutors. Until then, I was on the fence.

If you want justice, then take the Carr brothers out into a field, rape them, shoot them, and run them over with a truck. That’s justice, when the punishment fits the crime.

Here’s what needs to be done. Life sentence, no chance of parole. When allowed visitors, there is no human contact, meaning they never again can touch a loved one. No visual contact would suit me, too. No TV, no entertainment. Just four walls to stare at and contemplate. Let God be the judge of their life after death. And if you’re not a Godly person, wait for Karma to take effect.

And before anyone asks, yes, my family has lost a friend to murder. At the time, my kids wanted the death penalty. They’re now glad of the life sentence and have realized that the murderer’s death would not bring back our friend, nor would it bring peace anymore than the sentence he received.