What's Your Opinion Of The Death Penalty?

Death Penalty...????!!!

If there is a "Cancer" ... remove it!!!

Talking abortion and the death penalty in the same breath really is not right.

I think these should be separate topics... one is not the same as the other!

Yes they both involve the termination of a life, but for morally and socialy different reasons.

Well as far as abortion goes I don't see many running to the courts filing cases of murder against the mothers demanding the DP because she killed.

I was not the one to put the 2 together!! I stated they should be separate topics !

I also could go on and say that all this artifical insemination and fertility drugs for those who can't have children naturally is wrong too...

Would like to know how many of those children grow up into unlawful citizens...?

Natural selection, has it's place, it is not nice to fool Mother Nature!

Problem is you're trying to have your cake and eat it to. You are for killing certain people yet not others and then when someone wants to bring life into this world through help in the Scientific feild you don't like that either.

artifical insemination and fertility drugs are just advancements in science and are not wrong. Should a couple that desparetly wants a child be deprived when they want to experiance the full child birth experiance?

Problem is a civilization advances man kind is slowly trying to drag us all back into the middle ages. I for one and for going forward into the future not back into darkness.

Right on Scottish my man.

Unfortunately I feel items like the DP are doing just that though dragging us back into the dark ages. What's next? Pistols at high noon in the middle of main street between the family members and the killer?

Our Law Enforcement Officers are suppose to here just to prevent such acts from happening. But it still comes down to our Judicial System that keeps returning these criminals back to the streets.

I can think of our penal system paroling criminals that shouldn't be on the streets, and our elected officials pardoning criminals that shouldn't be on the streets but could you please give me a specific example of convicted murderer being put on the streets by our judicial system?

High Plains Drifter,

I believed you asked for one example. This one took me 10 minutes to find and I am new to this Internet thing.

It was a parole board (penal system) and not the judicial system that put the slime back on the street. Parole boards are not part of the Judicial. The Supreme Court decision that ruled the death penalty as it was practiced prior to 1972 to be cruel and unusual punishment did not require that convicted murderers be turned loose.

The DP in the states is not taken lightly, there are very specific crimes that warrent it. It is used to remove from society those that are incoragable and unwelding to reform or social remorse. The taking of a life is not a minor matter , if you have ever lost a loved one to a violent crime your thoughts might be different... then maybe not.

If you have a hang nail that causes you pain, you remove it, if you have a spliter that festers, you pluck it out, if you have a cancer you go to the Drs to have it removed or treated... so why is it so hard to remove a malfunctioning, festering, cancer of a person from society before it causes more harm?

I stand my ground on support of the death penalty!

High Plains Drifter,

I beg your pardon and I stand corrected on this one example.

I had assumed that the Parole Board was part of the Judicial System. And you know what Red Skelton says about the word "assume".

I know you said that the Parole Board was part of the Penal System. But which Branch of Government does this fall under, may I ask?

Executive
Legislative or
Judical

However, I shall continue to look for the answer you are seeking.

I think to some degree it sounds like it is up to the individual state. But it does look more like the executive branch then anything else.

For instance this first state of Oklahoma is a mixed selection part by the governor and part by the states judicial members.

http://www.ppb.state.ok.us/About/AboutBoard.htm

But Deleware is chosen by the governor and confirmed by their senate

http://www.state.de.us/parole/history.htm

And Alaska is also the same chosen by the governor (Top of pg 3 of this PDF)

http://www.correct.state.ak.us/corrections...le/handbook.pdf

Now this one is interesting in that it clearly states though that most have considerable time in the justice system (working not getting convicted )

http://www.drc.state.oh.us/web/parboard.htm

But overall it still looks like this might all be under the executive branch.

After about four hours of searching on the Internet last night. I did not find where a Judge returned a murderer directly back to the streets. But I did find that the Legislative Branch creates the laws and the Judicial Branch enforces the laws, while the Executive Branch has the power to pardon.

But did find in many cases. Where a Judge, including the Supreme Court Judges, would overturn a first degree murder to a second degree murder, by plea bargaining to the lesser charge, which will allow a non-life sentence. Even if they did receive a life sentence, they still could be paroled after 20 to 40 years.

Case in point is the Yates woman in Texas. After murdering her five children by drowning them in a bathtub, received a life sentence in which she will be eligible for parole in 40 years.

What about Charles Manson. Even thought he still sit in prison, he has come up for parol. Who is to say, that one of these days, he just might get his parole.

No matter who is to blame, it still comes down to that the murderer is put back on the streets.

I don't disagree that people get put back on the streets that shouldn't be but to blindly blame the judicial system isn't right either. An interesting thing is that conservatives are usually the ones to most often point to the judicial branch but currently in the federal judicial system the majority of the judges were appointed by Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Although it is a tragedy to put a murderer back on the street and have him or her kill again, it is just as tragic to execute a person who did not commit the crime for which he is being punished. I know this doesn't happen often but it does happen.

You use the Yates woman for one of your examples. It was pretty well established that she was suffering from post partum depression when she drowned her kids. This doesn't justify what she did but it will not be a problem if she is paroled in forty years and she may not be.

That Charles Manson has been up for parole and still sits in jail shows that in his case the system does work sometimes.