The Death Penalty
Well, I'm doing a history project on this, so I thought I might as well blog about my opinions on the death penalty. I think the death penalty is a very poor way of punishing someone for a heinous crime. People need to get rid of the mentality that you should take 'an eye for an eye'. Life in prison without parole seems to be a better punishment to me. If you kill someone, then their punishment is ended, but if they have to live for their whole life in a prison, doesn't that seem like a greater punishment?; Waking up every morning of your life to the same dreary gray walls and the cement bed... The process of lethal injection involves injecting someone with a 'cocktail' of chemicals. These chemicals are supposed to first, knock you unconscious, paralyze your muscles, and then cause cardiac arrest. If there isn't enough anesthesia in the cocktail, then the person may experience an incredibly painful death. ((http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/washington/26lethal.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin)). People can argue that death by lethal injection is a more humane way of death, but it doesn't seem that way to me. I believe that lethal injection violates the 8th Amendment of the Bill of Rights which states that "no cruel nor unusual punishment shall be inflicted". To me, being injected with a needle that kills you kind-of seems like cruel and unusual punishment. Currently, there are probably dozens of innocent people on the death row who have been falsely accused of capital crimes. They don't deserve to be executed for something that they didn't do. Unlike other punishments, the death penalty is irreversible and after the person is dead, then there's no bringing him back. Nowadays, with all the DNA examination, more and more people are being proven innocent of their crimes. The United States is part of the handful of countries who still punish people with the death penalty ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty)). If the United States is so interested in improving world policies, then they should ban the death penalty. Like I said before, life in prison without parole seems to me like a better punishment. If you fight fire with fire, all you get is a bigger fire! What is your stance on the death penalty?This entry was posted on January 10, 2008 at 06:29 PM and is filed under Thoughts,.
By i.am.will.i.am · on January 10, 2008
First of all…
When you say “still have the death penalty”... That’s like ALL the countries…
Secondly…
If you think a life in prison is a worse punishment than death… you must be a sadist…
Thirdly… The reason why some one gets the death is because they were sinned for a very BAD crime… and the people are afraid that if that some one is let free or escapes, he will do more harm.
Forthly.,.. If you get a bigger fire, you have a more likely chance of burning yourself… so don’t get too close to it. =.=
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I cannot see how death by lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment which would violate the 8th Amendment. I’m not sure where I stand on the death penalty these days because of so many innocent people that have been put to death and are sitting on death row. If we could be 100% sure that someone was guilty and the sentence given to them was death, then I’d be okay with it. As the system stands now, unless there was some evidence that unequivocally proves that that person committed the crime, a sentence of death should not be administered.
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“cement beds”? :mrgreen: I doubt they have that.
anyways, I have similar (almost exact, in fact :shock: ) views with you on the desth penalty. Except I think the death penalty is worse than the life in prison.
Death is a eternity.
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Well… I think you’re completely wrong.
I don’t think jail for life is practical. I’m sure it gets the “punishment” part in, but don’t you think it’s such a waste of money? I mean the taxpayers have to pay for food and shelter for a worthless piece of scum. That’s like punishing innocent people too. That’s one of the reasons Schwartznegger? is letting some criminals out early. Since we’re so badly in debt. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with lethal injection, since it’s pretty fast, relatively painless, and has a good success rate. I mean, if you were going to kill someone by say, cutting the apart one finger at a time with an axe i suppose that’s cruel unusual. But what happenes if the person lives afterwards? Isn’t that even worse? However, I do agree that the death penalty is too quick, so maybe they should find a more painful way to do it. That way, they’re punished before they die.
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Hey Alex!
I don’t agree with you at all, like the other three people before me.
First, we don’t kill the prisoners for their sake, we kill them so the prisons won’t get overloaded with a bunch of senile men and women in their eighties.
Plus, if you’re for big punishments against murderers and the like, and give them a life sentence in jail without parole since it’s worse, you want the prisoners to suffer; however, you say killing somebody with a shot and hurting them is cruel…
What are you trying to say? GO death penalty or NO death penalty?
But I still liked reading your little essay on it :grin:
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