Do you support the death penalty?

Absolutely not. The Timothy Evans/ John Christie/ 10 Rillington Place case, and the awful miscarriage of justice in the UK many years ago, tells me all I need to know to I form my opinion.

No.

Lots of reasons why I don't support the death penalty. I took a sociology class a million years ago and one of the classes talked about the death penalty and it's use as a deterrent for further crime. If the death penalty is supposed to be applied as both a punishment and as a deterrent for future crimes, it doesn't work. As like parenting, if the consequence does not immediately follow the crime, it loses in potency as a punishment the further away from the transgression it moves. Our judicial system allows for appeals (rightly so) in order to attempt to take away any doubt of innocence or guilt. But the further away from the specific crime, the less the punishment is connected (as it relates to deterrence) it becomes.

Additional problems come into play-disproportionate application to the poor, racial minorities and lower educated persons. Whether or not by design or inherent and unrecognized bias, those lower  the socio-economic demographic are disproportionately represented. Biases allow for innocent people to found guilty, the lower socio-economic demographic to receive harsher sentences than those perceived to be of a higher demographic.

Our judicial system is meant to be blind, but when you use real people as a jury, those people have their own life experiences and that shapes their thoughts and biases in ways that they don't even really understand. Those people are the ones who determine the fate of the person accused of the crime and can be influenced by our past (good, bad and indifferent.) While we strive to be objective and impartial, it is impossible to leave our interior landscape behind.

Hopefully that makes sense, I have only had one cup of coffee and have been up since 5 (how does that happen?!?) and I am hoping that it doesn't come out all jumbled up and a pile of hookey. LOL 

Yes...and as for why...ask the person or persons they harmed ,tortured or killed...oh we can't they are dead some of them...while this person on death row has rights and the victims don't...

I don't think it is a bias built into the system, I think it is OUR (the general public) built in preconceptions and biases. It is not an overt "us vs. them" thought process, but rather a function of our life experiences, upbringing, education, what we watch, read, listen to, what kind of friends we have, the community in which we live in...all of it. Those are the things that shape individuals and make us who we are. 

We are not impartial people. It isn't that we don't want to be, it is that we *can't* be. It is impossible. We are a sum of all our experience.

Right off the bat I want to say no, I don't. But I have never been in the position where a family member was murdered so who's to say my opinion would not change if I was put in that position.

I know that a verdict and sentence does not ever end the pain and suffering a family goes through. They often have to relive it when there are parole hearings, it brings everything to the surface again. I hate that our system allows that to happen to families.

Life isn't fair? You can't be serious.

This is exactly how I feel too.

Holy shit.  Are you really that cavalier about putting an innocent person to death?

I'm against it but not because I have some noble belief that everyone deserves life (although, I admire people who do believe that). If someone killed one of my children I would have no issue killing the bastard myself.

I'm against it in part because I would fear executing someone who was innocent but mostly because there is no way I want my government to have the power to kill its own citizens.

It's a lot more expensive: link - the link is from a website with an obvious bias but the studies backing up the assertions are linked.

Japan is certainly an industrialized nation.  Having said that, I don't support the death penalty.  I do think that some people are so evil, it's hard to imagine them living a life of relative ease in prison.  If someone tortured and killed  one of my loved ones, I am not sure I could restrain myself from issuing the ultimate punishment myself.  I fully acknowledge the barbaric desire within me.  But as a government program run by humans, it is flawed.  I can't call for a quicker process, as ultimately the government does need to ensure innocent people aren't put to death.  But the process becomes so expensive and flawed, it's utterly ineffective.  I think life in prison with no parole is ultimately better for our society as a whole - although I would like to see a bit less comfort in prison.  Although I do realize that it just makes life more difficult for the correctional officers tasked with keeping order.   

Yes.

Two trials and two guilty verdicts can still be wrong. We have executed people who were innocent. It's not a "right decision for the just outcome" when you kill an innocent person in exchange for a crime he didn't commit.

Yes I do