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Can we keep this on the topic of the death penalty and knock it off with the personal jabs at each other? Thanks.

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Edited June 26, 20169 yr by Steele1925

It's not the death penalty I have a problem with, it's our court system (U.S.) We have an 85% conviction rate.... Higher than any country in the world, yes, that includes China. This is because the courts today no longer require evidence, they all seem to go off of feelings and heresay (witnesses) which is entirely illegal yet nobody says a word. The following is a true story.....

 

Houston, Texas 2012

A female resident had ill feelings toward her neighbor. She convinced four other ladies from the neighborhood (same street) that this man was a bad guy. So the five of them conspired to have him thrown in prison. The initial female took a knife and stabbed her own German Shepherd in the throat, killing him. Then, she called the police and claimed the man next door did it. The police without question arrested him. The five females showed up to his trial as witnesses that he did it. With absolutely no evidence, he was convicted of breaking and entering, and animal cruelty. He went to jail, then prison to serve his time. Luckily for him, the initial female's daughter (24 years of age) called police after her mother bragged about getting this guy locked up. Everyone went back to court and as of March 2014, the wrongfully convicted man walks free.

 

The point is this can happen to anybody and it needs to be stopped NOW!!! No evidence, no conviction.

I would be really surprised if you found a murder conviction from the past 20 years that was made based on witness testimony alone. Do you know how hard it is to get a murder conviction based solely on witness testimony? I think you need to do a little more research into that topic because most cases that go through our court systems do have physical evidence in them.

 

You bring up a valid point though; it is true that someone could conspire with other people to testify against someone but how often does that happen? And more importantly how often has that happened in a murder conviction? I would be willing to bet the numbers are really low just like how I mentioned in a previous post that the amount of people on death row that were actually found innocent is only 4%. Now just like with that study there is no 100% guaranteed way of knowing the actual number but seeing how so few cases of that have come up I am willing to bet it doesn't happen very often.

On 10/7/2014 at 4:34 PM, l3ubba said:

I would be really surprised if you found a murder conviction from the past 20 years that was made based on witness testimony alone. Do you know how hard it is to get a murder conviction based solely on witness testimony? I think you need to do a little more research into that topic because most cases that go through our court systems do have physical evidence in them.

 

You bring up a valid point though; it is true that someone could conspire with other people to testify against someone but how often does that happen? And more importantly how often has that happened in a murder conviction? I would be willing to bet the numbers are really low just like how I mentioned in a previous post that the amount of people on death row that were actually found innocent is only 4%. Now just like with that study there is no 100% guaranteed way of knowing the actual number but seeing how so few cases of that have come up I am willing to bet it doesn't happen very often.

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Edited June 26, 20169 yr by Steele1925

I was responding because you still seem to want to take little jabs at me which is pretty childish by the way. But its ok, I understand you are just posting stuff to try and get reactions. Don't feel obligated to reply, if you want to go back to having a polite conversation about the topic then let me know. Until then, have a good night.

I don't mind having a civilized debate with you. My only problem, is that you make assumptions that I personally find offensive. Calling me a sick person, troll, etc doesn't contribute anything to the discussion. If someone were to hit you I'm sure you'd hit them back, thus my responses. When you are ready to have a debate on the death penalty without resulting to offensive assumptions, then let me know.

Capital punishment has little to no effect on crime, the intention of capital punishment is to deter crime but it does not. Most homicides are not premeditated but in the heat of the moment and the average person isn't going to stop and think about the consequences of their actions before they kill someone. It happens and then they realize oh shit! I might die for this but its too late at the point for the offender and the deterrent effect of capital punishment. 

 

IMO we should abolish capital punishment because it has no significant effect on crime.

 

Innocent people are being put to death (no matter how small the percentage)

 

Its clogging up  the court system with all the appeals, which not only wastes our tax dollars but reduces the efficiency of our Criminal Justice System.

 

An eye for eye is a very dated ideology  and the Government should really be above that.

 

And lastly the best punishment is sitting in a 5 x 8 cell thinking about what could have been had you not took someones live/lives. Getting the death penalty is the easy way out, sure noone wants to die. But would you rather die sooner or spend the rest of your live in a cage where you will eventually die?????  

 

 

I get your point, but there have been many cases in which someone was put on death row for a murder they didn't commit.

 

(Wikipedia)

In the case of Joseph Roger O'Dell III, executed in Virginia in 1997 for a rape and murder, a prosecuting attorney argued in court in 1998 that if posthumous DNA results exonerated O'Dell, "it would be shouted from the rooftops that ... Virginia executed an innocent man." The state prevailed, and the evidence was destroyed.^[16]

Johnny Garrett of Texas was executed February, 1992, for allegedly raping and murdering a nun. In March, 2004, cold-case DNA testing identified Leoncio Rueda as the rapist and murderer of another elderly victim killed four months prior.^[17] Immediately following the nun's murder, prosecutors and police were certain the two cases were committed by the same assailant.^[18] The flawed case is explored in a 2008 documentary entitled The Last Word.

Jesse Tafero was convicted of murder and executed via electric chair May, 1990, in the state of Florida for the murders of two Florida Highway Patrol officers. The conviction of a co-defendant was overturned in 1992 after a recreation of the crime scene indicated a third person had committed the murders.^[19]

Carlos DeLuna was executed in Texas in December 1989. Subsequent investigations cast strong doubt upon DeLuna's guilt for the murder of which he had been convicted.^[20][21]

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/04/i-just-freed-an-innocent-man-from-death-row-and-im-still-furious/

Those are only four cases, out of thousands. I have done the research and I know how many people have been found innocent on death row and the number is very small. And like I said before, all those cases you just listed were cases that were at least 20 years old and before we had as much forensic technology as we have now.

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Edited June 26, 20169 yr by Steele1925

Again, agreed. But even though the numbers are small they are still very important. I'd rather let 1,000 criminals go than lock up 1 innocent man or woman.

 

But to sum up this debate, I agree with you, and I do agree with the Death Penalty. Does it prevent violent crime? No, but it does give the public and all parties involved the closure they need to move on, including the psychopathic killer.

Of course, those numbers a very important. I don't want to sound like I am saying that those innocent people on death row are just collateral damage or anything. But yes, I agree with you on that point.