Death Penalty, For Or Against?

Just saw some news stories today about two Africans who were arrested in Singapore for drug trafficking, and will most likely face the death penalty.

What are your thoughts on it? Is drug trafficking a bad enough crime to warrant death? Does the death penalty act as enough of a deterrent to 'serious' crime? Should we even use it, isn't life imprisonment enough?

I personally think a life sentence of hard labour in prison with no hope of parole is much worse than the death penalty, but I guess it does cost taxpayers money to a degree.

As much as I think that people should die for awful things they do, I don't think it's truly right. Life imprisonment without parole is much better.

I completely agree.

Edit: I'll be a little more in description. With evidence analyzing and forensics as we have today, we are usually able to be absolutely sure that someone did a terrible crime. If we aren't they should get life in prison without parole.

Against. People have been pardoned after being hanged. It should never happen. I dont care about eye for eye, it is far more punishing to lock someone up and let their own conscience do the work than kill them. I do agree with creepy, though, in that life should mean life.

And it doesnt work as a deterrant anyways. The US states with the death penalty actually have a higher murder rate per 100,000 population than the states without the death penalty.

An interesting image I found was this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ld_Map.png

I think the colours say a lot about the countries, tbh. You have a mass of blue in western Europe, Canada, Mexico, as well as Australia etc. Then you have the middle east and africa, which is a mass of red. Then America is red. America isnt really any different from the middle east in that respect.

I live in Singapore, and I'm not lying when I say that the laws here are extremely harsh.

Too bad we can't stop them anyway, Singapore government has no remorse for anything they do so ya, break the law and they break your neck.

I am sure you will agree that killing people who have not done a crime, but were accused of it nonetheless is a bad thing. This has happened, and does happen. $1000 a day? No, it's not that much. Besides, the US might be able to afford it if you didnt spend so much bloody money on Iraq. It does not cost half a trillion per year to keep your troops there.

Anyway, this is not a political nor an Iraq war debate. Following Christian beliefs or not, human life is special - it is not something that should be taken away from anyone, even if said person took it away from someone else. It doesnt matter how much it costs to keep it alive, life cannot have a price - once someone or something is dead and properly dead, they cant be brought back to life. It is not something you can buy or sell or put a value on.

Crime is bad. I am not saying it is not. And people should be punished for that crime. But no-one should be killed for any crime, whether they killed or not. The mark on their conscience is a far greater punishment than death. Keeping non-dangerous killers in lower-security prisons does not cost much at all. Do that. Dont kill them.



I am sure those stars are 'bullsh*t'. Anyway, stop using liberalism as an insult. It's a far better political system than conservatism - look at Holland - low murder rates, low crime rates, incredibly low teen pregnancy rates, and its a very liberal country. Liberalism works. Conservativism doesnt - your murder, crime and teen pregancy rates are far higher than holland, and indeed many other parts of the EU.

Also, justify that comment. How is it 'bullsh*t' or whatever? How is the fact life is special crap? Life is a unique chemical process, unrivalled by any other, incredible in its complexity. Stopping it is bad, whoever does it.

By killing the criminal it makes us no better than them.

I agree with Creepy on this. They should be put away for life.

I'm for it in some cases like murder (except in self defense), but something like drug traficking doesn't deserve the death penalty. But anytime someone kills someone, they should get killed back