[quote author=Deborahmac09 link=1281336865/75#75 date=1281968916]It was not a personal attack. I do not agree that innocents are at more risk without the death penalty because I do not believe that it is enough of a deterrent.


There is no deterrent if someone really wants to murder someone else. [/quote]

Obvioulsy, you haven't read my link.

Even without deterrence, innocents are more protected with the death penalty.

Of course there is a deterrent if someone really wants to murder someone, just as there really is a deterent for speading and tax evasion, even if someone really wants to do that.

Some will be deterred, some won't be. That is the way with all thivgs that deter.

[quote author=Deborahmac09 link=1281336865/75#77 date=1281970302]exactly what i was getting at. [/quote]

No, deborah, it wasn't.

You said the death penalty does not deter anyone.

Absurd, of course.

Of course it deters some, just as all negative prospects do.

Back to innocents.

Start over.

"The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/07/05/the-death-penalty-more-protection-for-innocents.aspx

longweekend58 wrote on Aug 16^th, 2010 at 6:15pm:


And yet Asian and Arabic countries crime rates show the opposite.
It's no fluke.
Your statistics obviously come from the US where there citizens love of guns and inconsistent application of the death penalty throughout the nation has been detrimental.

dudleysharp wrote on Aug 17^th, 2010 at 12:17am:


Every single link you post is a biased point of view. CREDIBLE studies (ie not these ones) find there is no deterrence factor in the death penalty. You may find it inconceivable and wrong, but that doesnt make it false. Sorry, there is NO deterrence in the death penalty and your protestations to the contrary and CS Lewis quotes dont change that.

chicken_lipsforme wrote on Aug 17^th, 2010 at 7:19am:


asian crime rates are not as low as you seem to think. Leaving the crime-ridden USA out of the argument, you wil find that australias crime rate compares very favourably with such places. and did you know that the society with the LOWEST crime rate in the last 50 years was soviet USSR? so you see there IS a cure for crime - but that cure is worse than the disease.

aussiefree2ride wrote on Aug 17^th, 2010 at 7:20am:


Because aussie, things are not always how they seem. The person that you are saying has forfeited their rights as a human being, may not actually be guilty, or there may be extenuating circumstances.
Either everyone has the right to be treated humanely or no one does.

Well once again I disagree with Longy, I do NOT disagree with the death penalty on principle, and there are many instances I could think of where I would volunteer to do it if required.

I do however agree with Longy that I do not think we should have a death penalty.

Hunnhhhh??

How can I be for a death penalty in principle, but against a death penalty in practice???

Well the fact that we have an election campaign on at the moment should make it much easier to understand my reasoning, the simple fact is that "ultimately" the final decision of whether a person convicted of a capital crime, lives, or dies, is down to a decision by a politician, and I do not trust any politician to make that kind of decision.

I remember the last hanging in my home town of Melbourne, where there were doubts about the circumstances of how the death occurred, but a local Premier was on the nose with the electorate, and turning the election into a referendum on Law and Order, and who would be tougher on it, saw him make the choice to hang a man.

He won the election.

So, the only way I would support the Death Penalty would be if I was the one who made the decision, because I just do not trust politicians, or our political system, to ever be able to use the power infallibly.