Death Penalty

[Basilisa Marie]

I'm against it in nearly all circumstances (the exception being shipwrecked on a desert island with no other way to keep everyone else safe from a person who turns into a serial killer).  It has absolutely no place in America. 

[Odilia]

I never changed my stance in this matter. I agree with JPII that capital punishment should be avoided unless it is the only way to defend society from offenders. Since here and now we have other ways to do this, capital punishment should be banned. Luckily, the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment. In my country, capital punishment was first abolished in 1870, though only in criminal law. In military law, however, capital punishment remained a legal option until 1983, which I find kind of creepy actually. I was born in 1982, a barbaric era. *shivers*

Edited October 15, 2013 by Odilia

[EmilyAnn]

My opinion has basically always been that the death penalty should only be used if it is the only way to reasonably keep society safe from an offender, and in modern society that really no longer applies.

 

My dissertation was inspired by wrongful convictions, and there are so many cases of convicts who were executed and later exonerated. So with that in mind, I really can't support the use of the death penalty.

[MIKolbe]

I used to be for the death penalty in extreme circumstances, but now I'm for the death penalty never. I don't really want to debate that though. Has anyone else found themselves switch to the other side of the fence when it comes to a controversial topic? I've consistently been against abortion, euthanasia, and contraception so this is really the only "switch" for me. (Homosexual marriage -- I really can't muster the energy to care, frankly. Beyond "I'm a Catholic and this is what I think." Pretty indifferent.)

 

I would have to say this has happened to me as well.

 

My 'never' has a caveat, though... That the perpetrator be able to be housed safely and securely from society/others.  This, to me, is a given; but I am an 'merican and assume all other countries are like mine when it comes to technology and buildings and stuffs.

 

I would have to say I still struggle with it in some respects, but I find 'solace' in the Church still allows for it.  When I say 'solace', I am not giddy that someone's might be riding ole sparky or be facing a firing line; but feel my trust in the Church is not misplaced as the position of the Church is consistent: All life is sacred, and it is permissible (and dutiful) to protect this sacredness when needed.

 

I suppose a more accurate description of my position would be a death penalty minimalist.  If anyone's up for parsing words, that is....

[Selah]

I'm again' it.

[CrossCuT]

I used to be for the death penalty in extreme circumstances, but now I'm for the death penalty never. I don't really want to debate that though. Has anyone else found themselves switch to the other side of the fence when it comes to a controversial topic? I've consistently been against abortion, euthanasia, and contraception so this is really the only "switch" for me. (Homosexual marriage -- I really can't muster the energy to care, frankly. Beyond "I'm a Catholic and this is what I think." Pretty indifferent.)

 

I feel the exact same way.

I have always been pro-life but I had been pro-death penalty. Eventually I began to feel like that didnt make sense.

 

I switched sides with the idea that if these people (regardless of the evils they have committed) were allowed to live, it would give them more of a chance to ask for forgiveness.

[Tony]

I'm against it, mainly because innocent people do make it on death row, to me the risks outweigh the "reward"

[Gabriela]

I used to be staunchly, outspokenly for it. I thought we needed to put more people on death row and kill them a whole lot faster. Then I had a date with a guy who had done years of research on the death penalty and was a public advocate for its abolition. I listened to him go on and on about it, silently disagreeing and not really wanting to get into it cuz frankly I didn't like him much and didn't want another date. But what he said stuck with me. The main thing that haunted me was his statement that "the state does not have the right to take anybody's life". Having Libertarian tendencies at the time (though not yet being officially Libertarian), that made the difference to me, ultimately.

 

I take this, now, as a lesson that, even if you are debating with someone who is clearly just out to convert you, who is not in the slightest open to changing their mind, go ahead and make your best argument anyway. Something you say may stick with them, haunt them, and ultimately nag them to change.

 

I can see now how hypocritical it is for a person who claims to believe in the limited power of government to be pro-death penalty. Most Republicans claim to be for small government, and yet... The power to give or take life is the ultimate power. It makes me sad to know that my father, who is a die-hard Republican, is so party-loyal that he can't see this inconsistency in his own view.

 

The anti-abortion but pro-death penalty "inconsistency" is really not an inconsistency, though. The unborn have done nothing to "merit" or "earn" death. Criminals have. That view is only inconsistent if you assume that life is everyone's right. But if you assume that it is the right only of the innocent and the non-dangerous, then it is not inconsistent. Espouse that some crimes can warrant death as punishment, and being anti-abortion but pro-death penalty is perfectly consistent.

 

I made a turn on abortion, too, though not at the same time. It took quite a bit longer to come around on the abortion issue (believe it or not). I started to turn toward the pro-life side in my 20s after I realized how many women were using abortion as back-up birth control. But I was for abortion in the case of rape, incest, or other extreme circumstances pretty much all the way up until I entered the Church. It was when I began my conversion to Catholicism that I finally accepted it is more important to embrace life and accept what God has handed you than it is to avoid suffering and poverty.

[beatitude]

I've always been against the death penalty for two reasons. Firstly, the story of Jesus and the woman who had been condemned to death. "Let the one without sin be the first to throw a stone at her," has always seemed crystal-clear to me. Life belongs to God. He is the only one who can take it. Secondly, the death penalty seems to close the door on repentance and the possibility of a new life, and if you believe that even the worst sinners have it in them to make good, then killing them displays a terrible lack of faith in God's goodness and his creation.

[Ice_nine]

used to be staunchly against capital punishment. Now I pretty much feel that, in theory, it's a plausible and sometimes necessary course of action. But in practice I don't trust the competence of our government to actually handle such an important issue without botching it completely.

 

Also I don't think an execution necessarily precludes repentance. Sometimes the only way to get a sociopath to feel anything is to point a gun at his face (there are studies that demonstrate this if you look). Hell, if someone tells me I only have a few weeks to live I'm getting my **** together right quick. There's something about imminent death that makes a person act.