abolish the [expletive] death penalty

[utsusemia]

I am so gutted over Troy Davis I hardly know what to say. I only heard of his case late, and I have absolutely no personal connection to it, but it so perfectly encapsulates the medieval, racist, morally stunted blood circus that is the death penalty in the US. No, I don't think my country is better than this. No, I don't think we've betrayed our

Comments

[leucocrystal]

I couldn't agree more. The one term paper I had to write for my forensics degree was a persuasive argument for or against something in law, and I wrote for abolishing the death penalty. I've always hated it, but all the research I did for that paper just solidified all my reasons why forever. This is another reminder of what a terrible and pointless institution it is. I was so crushed to get the e-mail earlier this evening.

[leavingslowly]

I go back and forth on the death penalty. There's a part of me that thinks that there are some really heinous things that people do, and they shouldn't be allowed to continue to walk on this Earth paid for courtesy of my tax dollars. Then there's the part that thinks we're playing God, and boy, you better be really sure you know someone did something before you execute them, not to mention not all equal crimes are actually treated equally. Some murderers get significantly less jail time than drug dealers, and some murderers get executed and others don't.

[fragmentedsky]

Word. Just word.

There are, sometimes, crimes that I hear about and can't help thinking "the person who did this deserves to die." Like when some psycho rapes and kills a bunch of little kids. But I think the God Complex element is one that shouldn't necessarily be followed, and frankly, better to jail someone who deserves worse than execute a man who may be innocent. Especially in a system as clearly messed up as this one is. So I'm with you 100%: the death penalty needs to be abolished.

Conflicted

[fanfreak121]

I myself am conflicted about the death penalty. I heard what happened to Troy Davis thanks to Yahoo news. Sometimes I want certain people to die for what they did to innocent people, and other times I think no. What are we doing? We are just like the criminals in a way. Yes we kill "bad" people however, it still doesn't make it right.