[One Degree]

7

It seems much better to have someone locked away for life and work them hard every day to repay their debt to society than to execute them, which is more costly to taxpayers. There's countless examples of convicted murderers/rapists etc. being proven innocent later.

You put someone in prison and 10 years later you find out they are innocent. You are not releasing an innocent person. You are releasing a person corrupted by an unbelievably ruthless existence.
Mistakes like this can not be corrected. The damage is done.

[Zamuel]

It seems much better to have someone locked away for life and work them hard every day to repay their debt to society than to execute them, which is more costly to taxpayers. There's countless examples of convicted murderers/rapists etc. being proven innocent later.

All true.

Working prisoners does not earn enough to pay the costs of keeping them locked up. So I discard that as a sensible alternative. The innocence factor is disturbing. It's one of the reasons I "don't like" the execution option. This is what we have judges for, obviously they have limitations. A three judge "Death Panel" requiring unanimous concurrence might be better, but would I'm sure still be imperfect.

I think the fact that people will seek their own justice if the state does not provide it remains the deciding factor, for me.

Zam

[Unthinking Majority]

You put someone in prison and 10 years later you find out they are innocent. You are not releasing an innocent person. You are releasing a person corrupted by an unbelievably ruthless existence.
Mistakes like this can not be corrected. The damage is done.

But they can still live the rest of their life free. You kill them, they're dead, no 2nd freedom.

[Unthinking Majority]

I think the fact that people will seek their own justice if the state does not provide it remains the deciding factor, for me.

Zam

How do you seek your own justice if the bad person is locked in prison for the rest of their life? That should be enough justice, if not, well they can go to jail too.

[Zamuel]

How do you seek your own justice if the bad person is locked in prison for the rest of their life? That should be enough justice, if not, well they can go to jail too.

If there is no death penalty? you go for em before the law gets em, and likely you kill the wrong person. Or if the law gets em, you go for their wife or kid. The possibilities go on and on.

It can be hard to convict a revenge killing ... Watch (movie) or read the book A Time To Kill by John Grisham for some insight. And even a conviction won't bring back the dead. Enough of this goes on and society degenerates into vigilante law. (hey! I got a rope ...).

Zam

[Oxymandias]

@Zamuel

>When people are so violent they're willing to have revenge on a person that they neither know or care about instead of just letting the guy go to jail for the rest of their life

What country do you live in?

[Zamuel]

@Zamuel
When people are so violent they're willing to have revenge on a person that they neither know or care about instead of just letting the guy go to jail for the rest of their life

That's kinda the point

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/three-men-who-hunted-down-12005890
Three men convicted of killing a seven-year-old girl in a "revenge" murder have been sentenced to life in prison.

Defendants Carlos Stokes, 25, Jordan Clayton, 24, and Branden Brookings, 22, murdered Kirsten Williams as she played with her friends and a sibling in their front yard in Memphis in the United States.

Authorities in Shelby County said Carlos Stokes had wanted to "avenge" for the death of his 15-year-old sister Cateria who was killed in a drive-by shooting earlier that day.

The motive for the drive-by shooting is believed to have been an ongoing drugs dispute after a deal went wrong in 2014.

Judge James Lamney told The Commercial Appeal newspaper: "They were hunting this girl, basically."

How long you think these guys are going to live in prison? I'm guessing their lives are measured in days. And then who's next?


Dead at 7 ...

Zam

[Suntzu]

The killers.

[Godstud]

Who cares what they look like? They're killers.