California to vote on abolishing death penalty

[Ulti]

The people on death row already made their choice. They chose not to be a member of society, and because of this I do not support the abolishing of the death penalty.

Must suck to be one of those innocents who were deemed guilty by the jury. Getting killed for no god damn reason.

 

[Orion]

The people on death row already made their choice. They chose not to be a member of society, and because of this I do not support the abolishing of the death penalty.

Because the legal system and the faculties that back up its rulings (the police, related sciences) are not infallible, having the death penalty means that an innocent person can be murdered by the state. So long as that is possible, the legal system fundamentally fails.
Either remove the death penalty (which is already ultra-expensive) or install surveillance so intrusive and widespread that privacy doesn't exist anymore, so we can always be certain exactly who did what in relation to a crime (and all the other scary possibilities it opens up). I wonder which of those I prefer so that the USA doesn't have a broken legal system.

 

[OmniChaos]

Must suck to be one of those innocents who were deemed guilty by the jury. Getting killed for no god damn reason.

Because the legal system and the faculties that back up its rulings (the police, related sciences) are not infallible, having the death penalty means that an innocent person can be murdered by the state. So long as that is possible, the legal system fundamentally fails.

While this is true, abolishing the death penalty will do little to help it; in fact, it may make things worse.

Death penalty or no death penalty, an innocent person can still be sentenced to prison by a jury and may never taste freedom again. If sentenced to death, said innocent person would have a buffering between the sentencing and the execution, as been pointed out. And should said innocent person be put to death, the brighter side is that they would no longer be suffering in prison. On the other hand, if there is no death penalty, said innocent person may spend the rest of their days in prison.

So when you get down to it, you have to ask yourself which is worse: an innocent person being put to death or an innocent person having to suffer in prison for the rest of their life? Because if sentencing a person to life in prison is supposedly the greater punishment over the death penalty, then so too would it be the greater evil to inflict upon an innocent person.