Wondered if people wanted to talk about the death penalty?

I'm pretty concerned about the quick path to the lethal injection that is becoming more and more common in some of the states, especially Florida and Texas. I know that before when the average time between final sentencing and actual execution was about 12 years, that was perhaps a little on the long side in terms of appeal after appeal (unless there were truly legitimate new evidence), but it disturbs me that the timeframe is now so much shorter.

Are innocent people being put to death just because they don't have the money to get a decent attorney and their time for appeals is running out too quickly?

Sorry to say this, but it almost seems like a conveyer belt in a few states these days, and that disturbs me. Don't get me wrong -- I believe in punishment and deterrents, but it seems like it's out of whack.

Does anyone else have comments on this? BTW, I don't believe in the death penalty -- true life in prison (and not a very cushy prison) is my belief.

I'm kind of iffy on this issue. I don't like the idea of killing people (even if they've committed murder or are serial killers) just in case they are innocent, but on the other hand, some of the guys who kill people and have absolutely no remorse and say they'd do the same thing again in the situation make me think the death penalty is a good thing.

For sure I agree that people in prison should not be having a good time at all, especially those with the death penalty hanging over them. Still, if we're not going to kill them, we gotta protect them ... what about Jeffrey Dahmer ... not a guy I'd like to meet, that's for sure, but he was supposed to be protected in jail and wound up somehow being assigned to a job that took him into contact with other prisoners and I don't know if he even made it through one shift before he was dead. Prisons can't be a place where justice is handed out by the prisoners themselves.

This is an issue I go back and forth on in my mind, but ultimately, I think I agree with you that life in prison (real life) is the best alternative. Yeah, I know it costs a lot, but it would cost a lot less if conditions in prison were really nasty and that might act as a deterrent to people in jail for other reasons if it was not such a relatively cushy place compared to the places some of them have outside.

Well, you got it right when you called it a "conveyor belt" Goodgirl in some of the southern states these days compared to a state like California where they haven't killed, er, executed anyone for God knows how long, but at least as long as Charlie Manson, yet they still have the death penalty.

Personally I believe in the death penalty, but I also think that anyone who kills another human being on purpose has got a screw loose somewhere. We're supposed to be civilized, for God's sake, so I see no excuse for murder other than something wrong with the person involved. There's something missing in their mental makeup, and if that can't be dealt with reliably by medical means, I guess that's when I support the death penalty. I don't even know if it does any good as a deterrent to murderers to know they may be executed.

As a doctor, I feel I have to be against the death penalty. I took at oath to save lives, "above all, do no harm", etc. etc.

I don't know how any doctor can justify killing of any kind, even if the state orders it and sanctions it. I'm not saying doctors are above the law, but I could never be involved in carrying out any procedures associated with a lethal injection or any other method of execution.

So how do we deal with people who commit crimes that are inhuman and unfathomable? I don't know the answer. We each have our beliefs and our feelings about these issues ... look at me ... I'm against the death penalty yet believe that abortion should be legal (within certain medical limitations) ... and it tears me apart to see terminal patients suffering when I know that if I give them anything more for the pain, it'll kill them.

I'll bet you at least one person viewing this forum will call me a hypocrite, but to me, the issues are entirely different. If you want to see my view on abortion, check out that thread. If it doesn't make sense, maybe you can understand how hard I struggle with it and I have to struggle with these issues almost everyday.

OK, Medguy, I'll do it - you're a hypocrite.

The death penalty is necessary in our society to act as a deterrent and to show that we will not allow individuals to take the law into their own hands or kill innocent people.

This country can't afford to be namby-pamby on this issue. For too long, we've sat around and said, "oh, those poor murderers - they had such a bad childhood and never had a chance" ... that's crap. Everyone in this country has an equal opportunity to make a decent life for themselves and if they screw it up that badly, then they've made their own choice and in the process removed choice from another individual or individuals. Carrying through the death penalty in a timely manner is the only way we can stop the escalation in crime that has plagued this country in the last 20 years.

not only should the death penality continue but the rediculous length on time it takes to execute someone should be drastically shortened. violent crime is rampant and tearing our nation apart and the inability of the courts to become an effective deterrent only encourages this. im a nurse in a maximum security prison and witness everyday how the court system is manipulated by criminals and lawyers. it cost 90,000 dollars a year to keep a death row inmate housed each year as opposed to 30,000 for general population. persistent felony offenders with violent crime convictions should be cut out of society like a cancer and disposed of, not taken care of at tax payer expense for the rest of there lives. the days of unplesent prisons and chain gangs are past. extend the death penality to cover far more types of violent crime and limit the amount of appeals to 2-3 years max.

We need to have some limits though - I think 2-3 years is too short a limit. Most court cases take that long, not just death penalty ones. They are often even harder to deal with. I'm all for the death penalty if someone is guilty of a heinous crime, but you have to have protections. Sometimes people do end up being found innocent. Maybe the best way to deal with it is to cut down on the price we spend on incarceration. If you could get it closer to 30 instead of 90, then the delay wouldn't be nearly as bad on the system.

I don't think the days of unpleasant prisons and chain gangs have to be over at all.

After all, isn't the whole point of the death penalty to act a deterrent so that other people don't just go killing each other for no reason? If you know you're going to get fried, hopefully you'll think a little longer before you pull the trigger.

Actually I kind of believe that the death penalty is really the easy way out for people convicted of murder, when you compare it to the reality of a life lived behind bars in barely minimal conditions. If we started keeping people in prison for life with no chance of parole in a really nasty place where they could survive but that's it - maybe then the next generation of killers would actually begin to be deterred against killing people. Lethal injection is quick, easy, and painless - sure, no one really wants to die, but if given that choice versus 70 years of a knowingly miserable existence that there was no way out of either, some might choose the needle.

I don't see the death penalty really making a big difference in the amount of murders, so maybe we need to rethink the death penalty's usefulness as a deterrent and consider some other options.

Life in prison is still really bad - I don't see why we need a death penalty to deal with stuff that could just have somebody put in jail forever as a deterrent. And there's actually something you can do about it then if you make a mistake.

I'm all for the death penalty. Why should society pay 80 to 100 thousands dollars a year to keep a killer in jail, with a weight room, TV, free medical, etc? I also think appeals have gotten out of hand and they add additional cost to housing the killers. So for me it's bye, bye and may you burn in hell if there is such a thing.