Capital punishment???

yes, I am for it. Some folks just gotta die, is all...

Oh man...didn't we beat this to death (heh) in the Tookie Williams thread?

Against (in no particular order):

• It's not a successful deterrant
• We execute innocent people
• It costs lots more to execute someone than it does to incarcerate them for life
  
• Remember that "Thou shalt not kill" thing?
  

Sorry if this thread has been done, look at it this way your on your way to 4000th.

I'm not against it, but I think that the family of the victim(s) should have the final say. Not that DA's office. I have worked a few 1st degree homicide cases where the defense tried to plea to life without parole. The DA's on those cases knowing it was a slam dunk chose the death penalty. The family on 2 of those cases had no idea how their loved one had been killed and had to sit through every detail of the crime during trial. One mom said it was bad enough to lose a child only to have to live through it again.

Well...any prisoner is potentially a threat to the staff or fellow cons. Should we kill 'em all? 

The guards are trained. They have weapons. Prisoners are restrained. When was the last time you heard about a prison guard being killed on the job, outside of a riot?

And I think your last sentence there is kinda proving my point. 

It is clear that, for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

In any event, the principle set forth in the new Catechism of the Catholic Church remains valid: "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person".

I agree about how you'd feel. I'd feel exactly the same way. I'd probably want to take the guy out myself.

But that's a base instinct, and base instincts aren't good for society as a whole. If we metted out punishment in that manner, we'd do a whole lot worse to people that committed any crime. Ken Lay? Every Enron share holder should get 5 minutes alone with him with a club. For example.

As a society, we need to be better than that. 

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/01/05/dna.execution.ap/index.html