Is Capital Punishment Ever Necessary?

[Stone1]

Being born and raised in a country without capital punishment it is hard for me to accept that such a thing seems necessary. Of course, if I ever came into an extreme situation like, let's say my wife (we are not married since at least I don't believe in such a thing, but I think of her as my wife nevertheless) would be raped or killed, probably I would crave revenge, too. But would I want the criminal to be executed? At first, probably. After some calming down, I think not. Given the possibility of an error in the investigation of the case, it is possible that the wrong one is sentenced. So if he is executed anyway, and some time later, the real criminal would be found, another innocent life had been taken, the psychological effect on me would be disasterous.

So my proposal is as follows: The convicted should be imprisoned, life sentence clearly, and by that I don't mean what we have today, a jail where he has relatives visiting, TV, radio, a library, three ot more meals a day, a workout room and I don't know what else and, worse still, the chance of being paroled after 20 or 25 years and walking out as a free man (or woman). I mean the real thing. A cell with a mattress and a privy, enough water and food to keep him alive and, perhaps, paper and pen (his/her thoughts might be interesting research material). Point. Nothing else. Jail, at least for such cases, should be real punishment. No parole.

I think that should be nearly as crime-preventing as the death penalty (the criminal has the possibilty to execute himself, if he wishes) and has the advantage that a later found error could be corrected.

What do you think?

[Metaltiger]

The main thing I think that needs to be kept in mind concerning punishment of any kind is how it works to keep the whole of society safe going forward.

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.

[Stone1]

I agree that the "life after this one probability" is high but my main point is the negative psychological impact in the case that an executed is found not guilty afterwards. I think that it outweighs the satisfaction of the criminal being put to death on the pain/pleasure matrix. In cases where the guilt of the criminal is 100% clear I would, probably, agree with capital punishment but I think it is difficult to achieve that clarity.
I still have to fully explore the Trusted Surveillance System, today at least the prosecution system is far from fool-proof.

[HarryStottle]

[Metaltiger]

[HarryStottle]

[Stone1]