seems to be a pretty controversial topic these days

personally, I see it as too hard and not hard enough. For some criminals, it's the easy way out, where you can just sleep forever in a painless death, instead of facing torture, or life imprisonment. But let's say you're innocent. You're being executed for being in the wrong place and wrong time, and no one can "undo" your punishment. that isn't just. Well there's my two cents.

It is too expensive, it is far more expensive to execute someone than to imprison them for their entire life.

It is not an effective deterrent, and does not prevent crime.

The death penalty is a waste of money, life, and time.

Depends on what happened

It needs to be gone. Like now.

how come?

I think the death penalty should be reserved for terrorists, war criminals, and governent officials that knowingly cause people's deaths.

It could be done much cheaper, needs reform lol

The trial process still fails to save innocent individuals, reform and reduced costs isn't going to prevent innocent people from being executed.

Yea happens, still could solve 2 out 3 problems lol

it’s too harsh for some.. and for others..not harsh enough, say one man (or woman because they also do stuff sometimes) commits a harsh felony so bad it’s worth death, that’s the easy way, he just dies and wonders as a ghost forever, but if he wasn’t that bad...then why kill him? it’s inconvenient

Killing somebody even when it's a criminal is still killing. I can understand you sometimes cannot avoid killing. If somebody tries to kill you, you may have to, but when it comes to an execution, you basically kill somebody who has no more means to defend themselves.

I am also not sure if capital punishment actually works the way it is intended to work. That is to prevent people from commiting crimes. I think the opposite is rather true. A criminal whose life is on the line can become very extremely dangerous. And frankly can you blame them? Anyone whose line is on the line will rely more and more on survival instincts rather than ethics. Overall countries still having capital punishment do not have lower crime rates than countries that have no capital punishment... Mostly even higher. Now people are discussing if the death penalty is there because of the higher crime rates, or if the crime rates are higher because of and not in spite of the existence of the death penalty.

Another thing is, when somebody serves a life long sentence in jail but turns out to be the victim of a miscarriage of justice, you can still release them and try to compensate them. When somebody is executed and turns out to be the victim of a miscarriage of justice, then you have a problem, since death cannot be undone. And even if you could undo death, I am not sure if it's a wise thing to do, as the wrongly executed person will likely be traumatized for the rest of their lives in unimaginable ways.

All-in-all... I am against the death penalty... It doesn't solve the problem we call "crime", and there are also too many other issues, and I've also some ethical problems with the entire phenomenon.

Oh boy. I'm not entirely sure where I stand on the issue.

Right now, people spend 20 years on death row. I know I don't agree with that. If you're gonna put them in prison just put them in prison. Plus, it costs more to keep them there instead of normal prison. I think that's where most of the cost comes from.

In any case, if someone is to be convicted with the death sentence, there should be no shadow of a doubt left that they are guilty cause there's no going back.

I've read a number of studies saying it deters crime, equal to the number that say it doesn't.

I don't think you know where the costs come from, or what is most expensive in the process. X for doubt. Source please?

Agreed on needing to be at 100% accuracy, executing the innocent seems like a big nope.

Provide your source(s) that say the death penalty deters crime. X for doubt.

https://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/tag/tables/
Scroll down for cost chart

https://deathpenalty.procon.org/questions/does-the-death-penalty-deter-crime/

Provide your source that executing innocents is a big nope

Your own source says the death oenalty doesn't deter crime.

Scientific consensus is that the death penalty doesn't deter crime.

https://www.aclu.org/other/death-penalty-questions-and-answers

Oh really? Huh, maybe that's what I meant when I said there's an equal number of ones on both sides of the argument. Ya think maybe?

Consensus, and "equal number on both sides" are not the same thing. Consensus means a majority of scientists agree, and they agree that the death penalty is not effective crime prevention.

What, 60%?
Like I said, there are arguments on both sides and frankly I'm not sure where I stand so go find someone else to hassle.

88%

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/study-88-of-criminologists-do-not-believe-the-death-penalty-is-an-effective-deterrent

Oh, and if you're still hungry for sources about money

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29552692/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/execute-or-not-question-cost/#.X3EsWRSSlPb