this is a very disputable topic. many people are for and many against the death penalty.
The biggest problem is drawing up a criteria for a crime. There are those dudes that make crime scales on the discovery channel, but it categorizes lunatics and in your face murderers as the same.

Honestly I think the death penalty should be implemented in every single country. And forget about drawing a line between bad and evil. Murderers, rapists pshychos ... there is no excuse ... young ,old ,gay ,straight ,teen , on drugs or not. Black,white, asian, kuklux clan, alcoholic or not. If you kill someone intentionally or by accident it doesn't really matter. You never truely sure whether something happened by accident or by hidden intention.

The death penalty wouldn't only scare potential murderers away but it would decrease the general crime rate. If people where aware of the consequences then they'd not be tempted into crime.

and eye for an eye... as mentioned above.

I think the idea of prison is idiotic... housing, food, toilet and more all state paid. I'll kill someone , and i live for free. So whocares if I'm confined? I can make friends, family can visit me, I can go outside... i can work out... I can read, any many other things... that is sick! poor people with no jobs ... hurt someone else just to get the benefits...
what a choice: cardboard box under the bridge or cosy confinement?

Jail just tempts people into crime, especially the poor , who don't bother going to a job agency and go to work. Job agencies (in poland at least) are full of jobs ... but polish people prefer to get the jobless funding that they can get from the government... they get a lousy sum of cash... but its enough for food and accomodation and alcohol for a whole month... what more could you ask?

Its all sick... If i had the power i'd make the criminals/potential criminals think twice before acting. No jails ... instead hard labour.
you killed someone? ... or deprived a women of her virginity or dignity?... good bye ... we don't need you on this earth.

humans were made to work together ... you don't cooperate, you are not needed... no feelings involved.

I think one of the main reasons many people
are against the death penalty is because of
those cases that have hit the headlines where
somebody has been put to death - only for it
to be found 'too late' that they were in fact
'innocent' of the crime.

Not so long back - we had a few cases where
mothers had been found guilty of killing their
children and sentenced to prison terms. After
spending several years in prison - it was found
that they were wrongly imprisoned. Now if those
mothers had been sentenced to death - no amount
of compensation could have made up for this terrible
miscarriage of justice.

I do agree though that prison is not working. People
get out and often re-offend almost immediately and
often these crimes are rape and other sexual assault/
abuse related or murder.

I think one of the major issues with out justice systems
is one of handing down sentences intended to 'deter'
future crimes of the same nature, especially the more
violent crimes. There is no 'consistency' in sentencing.
Two people commit identical murders but one will get
a much lighter sentence than the other. How can this be ?

A big issue I have with sentencing is the - so called
'Life Sentence'. This actually only amounts to about
20 years I think - and less than that when you take
'Parole' into account.

If we don't have the death sentence - we do need
something in place that would be just as big a deterrent,
but which - unlike the death sentence - can be revoked
should the person be found to have been wrongly convicted.

It's true that it's amazing the number or murderers and rapists that get out sometimes after only one third of their time on excuses like "good parole"... Hallucinating O_O

The death penalty should return to being done in public places rather than behind closed doors. If we are going to keep it around as a possible deterrent it should be done where possible future criminals can witness it.