Death Sentence VS. Life Sentence

[Winter Wonderland]

What's your opinion on them? Which shouldn't exist? Which is worse?


Personally, I believe the life sentence shouldn't exist. It's cruel to stick someone in a prison with a bunch of criminals for the rest of their natural life. I think it would be a fate worse than death, and people are already complaining that death is too harsh.

 

[Cherrim]

I'm not sure I believe in the death sentence for anything. I'm not even religious but I don't believe any human has a right to kill another, even as punishment for any amount of crimes they did. But anyone who's done something horrible enough to get a potential death sentence definitely deserves to be locked away from the general populous, so that's what the life sentence is for.

The only thing that makes me sort of waver on my position is the idea that someone who might have killed many people is taking up money because they need to be looked after, fed, etc. in jail and that doesn't seem fair.

 

[Freedom Fighter N]

Not so different. You're going to die anyway.

It's obvious what is worth. Life sentence, of course. I think that some people should rot in jail if they do something terrible. They will more likely die from another cause than natural death anyway.

 

[Winter Wonderland]

I don't think the life should exist though. To lock someone away until someone else kills them or they just rot away in confinement is more cruel than just ending their life.

 

[Nihilego]

I absolutely agree with the Life Sentence for murderers. You take someone's life, you pay for it with yours. You can throw in the fact that they have to spend life in prison instead of just being killed through the Death Sentence because of the damage they caused the family of the murdered person too.

 

[Legobricks]

Killing someone removes concern of their existence, the problem is entirely gone and we can all move along. It's efficient, that's all. Of course I don't support death sentences being handed out carelessly, I'm just saying, that's why we tended toward executions prior to any notion of 'human rights'. Besides, I'm not vindictive enough to wish that people suffer to their ends in prisons — the common argument that death is the 'easy way out' actually doesn't go in favour of imprisonment, the way I see it.

 

[Winter Wonderland]

Exactly. The life sentence is so much more cruel than the death sentence. If you pay for a life with your life, then boom. Problem solved.

 

[donavannj]

The only thing that makes me sort of waver on my position is the idea that someone who might have killed many people is taking up money because they need to be looked after, fed, etc. in jail and that doesn't seem fair.

On this point, in the US, the death penalty costs about as much as a life sentence due to the higher likelihood of appeals for death sentences, which can drag on for years, a time period in which the public has to pay to support those sentenced to death row while their appeals get processed as well as paying for the legal costs of the appeals for both sides.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

When you take away somebody else's life intentionally, the only justice that can be done is that your life is taken away from you. You still enjoy extensive appeal rights, and the method of execution used is usually far more humane than how the victim was killed.

 

[インフェルノの津波]

Can you be let out of prison with good behavior on Life?

 

[Nihilego]

Can you be let out of prison with good behavior on Life?

I know that this is pretty common in England. Someone can kill someone else, be jailed for "life", and be let out on bail after just 10 years or sometimes even less. I believe two teenagers who tortured and killed a toddler a long time ago got something pathetic like 8 years. I skimmed this so I could be wrong, but reading material.

In June 2001, after a six-month review, the parole board ruled the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and could be released as their minimum tariff had expired in the February of that year. The Home Secretary David Blunkett approved the decision, and they were released a few weeks later on a lifelong licence after serving eight years.[56][57] Both men were given new identities and moved to secret locations under a "witness protection"-style action.[58] This was supported by the fabrication of passports, national insurance numbers, qualification certificates and medical records.

I can't really be bothered to remove the links but yeah. Not only did they get an early release, but they got given new identities too.

Maybe this is off-topic tho since I don't know if these two were sentenced life in the first place. They should have been, imo.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

Can you be let out of prison with good behavior on Life?

If you get Life Without the Possibility of Parole here, the only way you can be let out is if you win an appeal and your sentence is reduced or you are exonerated of the crime.

 

[Cherrim]

Can you be let out of prison with good behavior on Life?

It depends on the country. I think here in Canada, if you're sentenced to life, there's usually a date set (between 7 and 25 years, iirc) where there's a possibility of parole following (and with continuing) good behaviour. I imagine it's similar in other countries.

 

[Myles]

If we're taking people's lives if they're not a threat to anyone else, how does that make us a civilised society? Morality is subjective; who says that we have the ultimate right to decide who gets to live?

A life sentence is not too cruel a punishment; if you're arguing we be more lenient on them, then why not let them decide? Are you really sure that's the reason you're arguing for the death penalty? Because some people who didn't commit murder get the life sentence in America.

A life sentence is a way to protect innocents. If people in the future have a different, more refined sense of morality than us (as we do than people in the past), than we would look like savages for killing people, but probably not if we were just keeping people away from people to protect them.

Really, if life imprisonment is so bad, then we just need to improve the prisons.

 

[Shining Raichu]

I'm not exactly for the death sentence, but I wouldn't exactly say I'm against it either. It makes poetic sense to me that if you take away someone's human right to a life, then you forfeit your own. But I think we need to be VERY VERY SURE that the person actually did it before handing out that punishment.

That said, life sentences are also good in that a murderer gets tortured for the rest of their life having to remain in one small surrounding.

The one thing to consider is the cost of it all. It sounds callous, but a murderer is not worthy of a life. Why have taxpayers pay to support him/her for however many years it takes him/her to die, when they could just end his/her life at the beginning and have the same outcome only cheaper?

 

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

What's your opinion on them? Which shouldn't exist? Which is worse?


Personally, I believe the life sentence shouldn't exist. It's cruel to stick someone in a prison with a bunch of criminals for the rest of their natural life. I think it would be a fate worse than death, and people are already complaining that death is too harsh.

If they did something so evil (such as killing) or something (i dont know what exactly) its good for them to stay in jail so they can live with the rest of their life thinking about what they did as it slowly eats them within. But I do believe that life in jail is worse because of the scenario I just gave.


:t354:TG

 

[donavannj]

The one thing to consider is the cost of it all. It sounds callous, but a murderer is not worthy of a life. Why have taxpayers pay to support him/her for however many years it takes him/her to die, when they could just end his/her life at the beginning and have the same outcome only cheaper?

I don't know how it is in Australia, but here in the US, as I mentioned above in this thread, contrary to popular perception, it isn't exactly cheaper to sentence someone to death, due to the fact that, most of the time, they will drag out the appeals process for years (presumably to keep themselves alive as long as possible), and all this time they are being provided for in prison (other than being among a bunch of other inmates and subpar bedding, they live quite comfortably there) as well as having a state-supplied attorney throughout the appeals process, in most cases.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

The only thing that makes me sort of waver on my position is the idea that someone who might have killed many people is taking up money because they need to be looked after, fed, etc. in jail and that doesn't seem fair.

That's my stance. I'm not really "an eye for an eye" person, I just think in dollars XD

And not in every situation either. Really just for absolutely horrific crimes that are 100% proven (like, if they're sick and taped themselves doing it).

I'm fine with life imprisonment, when it's actually life imprisonment. Not just in name only and then they're out in 25 years minus time already served :\

 

[Althea]

I almost fully (I'll get to my reservations later) support the death penalty. I'll be using murder as an example crime to illustrate my opinion, since its the most serious. Obviously my opinion changes with crimes of a lesser magnitude, but then I'd have to be quite the extremist if I thought thieves deserved the death penalty...although I do think that rapists deserve it as well.

I don't believe that people will contemplate what they've done in prison. If they intentionally murdered someone, they obviously had no regrets at the time, and I think a small part of a person who commits a crime of that magnitude knows that they're eventually going to end up getting caught. If they were going to have regrets, they wouldn't have done it. Giving them a life sentence, to me, is essentially setting them up for life, it's almost a reward for committing a crime. Off our backs, they get to sit in prison for the rest of their lives. How is this fair? I don't think we should have to pay to keep people who we're never going to let back into society out of it. As far as I'm concerned, they forfeit their human rights when they take another's life.

Another thing is that a life sentence is rarely a life sentence. You have to do something that goes above and beyond murder - like, mass bombings or something - to earn a life sentence that actually remains a life sentence, and doesn't get reduced to a pitiful amount of time instead. The death penalty is no more or less than murderers deserve. What right do we have to decide who lives and who dies? Well, what right did they have to make that choice? Why should we treat them any differently? As far as I'm concerned, the moment they take another's life, they forfeit those human rights that they so cling to when trying to stop themselves from getting a life sentence. There are rules in society, and they chose not to follow them. Why should we treat them as a part of society if they're going to break the rules so severely?

The only problem with the death penalty is...well, what if they get it wrong, and execute an innocent person? Our system for administering justice is horribly flawed, and I would say it is incompetent enough to convinct an innocent of a crime they didn't commit, since it is incompetent enough to be lax upon it's sentences. Convict an innocent man of murder, give him the death sentence, then find out a few weeks/months/years later that he wasn't guilty after all...how are you going to break that news to the victim's family? What possible sort of explanation and compensation could you offer them?

Death isn't a punishment either, it's a release. I suppose this view depends entirely on what you think what happens after you die, but killing someone, to me, releases them of any guilty conscience they may have. But then, I don't honestly believe that anyone who commits murder intentionally HAS a guilty conscience, or any sort of conscience for that matter...but if we kill them immediately, how are we going to know whether or not they're suffering because of what they did? But if we imprison them for life, we're essentially setting them up for life. So really, neither solution is perfect.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

Can you be let out of prison with good behavior on Life?

It depends on the country. I think here in Canada, if you're sentenced to life, there's usually a date set (between 7 and 25 years, iirc) where there's a possibility of parole following (and with continuing) good behaviour. I imagine it's similar in other countries.

I hate that. :|

If you killed someone, and get a life sentence, then you should stay there for life. Not get out after 10 years because you did some dishes