The principal reason that I perceive about why most in society that object to capital punishment is that they (most) have a (IMHO) wrong opinion about the potential for all of us to live another life beyond this one. For instance most Christian believers have been taught that anyone who doesn't get right with God in this life is shut out for another life beyond this one. Thus many of them strongly object to death sentences for fear of cheating an individual out of chance to get right with God. From another group, say the atheists, you could argue that a percentage of them object to capital punishment because they don't want to cheat anyone out of this one and only life.
Personally, I believe there will be a life after this and that virtually all of us will have an opportunity to mend our ways at that time, thus, I don't feel that any life being shortened in the here and now will affect the overall prospects of any individual. Of course, if there isn't a life after this, I can't see how it would make any difference, thus back to my first sentence - capital punishment or any other punishment should be applied in a way that brings about the greatest degree of safety for us as a whole.
BTW- I agree with Stone1 concerning the need for prison life to be unpleasant and also should be of low cost burden to public. Actually, from what I understand, until a few decades back, prison systems were actually self funded, even source of profit, institutions.Statistics: Posted by Metaltiger — Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:18 pm
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