> >
> > My feeling is that what is going to happen is the right thing.

I'd like to emphasize that this is my expression of my gut feeling: I will not claim to be The Great White Moral Light That All Should Follow.

Now, let's discuss.


>
> That makes sense; at least, in huge cases like this one.

Thanks! Then I haven't lost it (completely).

> On the other hand, is it going to help? Besides yours, there's two main arguments people use in favour of the death penalty:
>
> 1.) The "example" theory, or whatever you want to call it. This means that death penalties are supposed to deter potential murderers. Yet, the murder rate in the US isn't really all that low. If statistics show anything, then it's that after an execution, brutality goes rather up than down. I'll try to find the study that showed this, I've still got the newspaper (one you can trust, not one of those tabloid thingies) where I read it lying around somewhere, I think.
>
> 2.) The "justice" theory. According to this, murderers should be murdered/killed themselves because they deserve it. There are some that demand the same policy about other crimes (I could link to several discussions in other forums), but really: What's the use? Is it going to bring the victims back? Is it going to teach the murderer a lesson about what life is worth? If so, what good does that do if he only has a few seconds to think about it?
>
> That wasn't all, I'm willing to discuss this and related issues further.
>
> Fuzz"internet café, can't write too much right now"pilz


ad 1) I don't think that potential murderers can be deterred. Somehow the idea of someone who's crazy enough to kill pausing with the finger on the trigger to think "Oh, is this right?.. Ho-hum.. I guess not, so I'll just go home again" just doesn't work. To be less blunt, I think that people sane enough to think about it aren't scared by death.

ad 2) The only way I can definitely claim that execution of a murderer will help is that he/she won't do it again. Of course, the answer to all (the last three, at least) of the questions formulated above is "No". However, this is not an argument against death penalty. The only one I can find is fear of convicting an innocent. As I tried to express in my first post, no-one has the 'right' to take a life, and that makes it as hideous a crime to execute an innocent as the original murder.

When I say that no-one has the right to kill, I'm thinking "right" as in "the power or privilege to which one is justly entitled". The only reason that I belive that the government should have the power to administer death penalty is that I think that such a measure (the death penalty) is unavoidable, and therefore, somebody must have that power.

jul"thinking how to explain clearer"ian