Compare opinions of experts, leaders and organizations.
        

Is the death penalty acceptable?

Topics: Law   Capital Punishment   Philosophy   Crime  

Background

The arguments for the death penalty include its use as a deterrent, a means to save lives, and a way to enact justice. Common counterarguments are that it fails as a deterrent, that justice is perverted because a certain proportion of convicts are later found innocent, and that under no circumstances is killing acceptable if it can be prevented.
 


Expert Opinions

What's Your TakeOnIt?

Agree
AnswerExpert
Quote
Bible for Jews and Christians
If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. ... If a man commits adultery [...] both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.     
Before 100 A.D.   Source
U.S. Senator, Republican
I think that the new technology of DNA would, I think, provoke a review, clearly, of cases that may be questionable, but I certainly wouldn't abandon the death penalty.     
16 Feb 2000   Source
United States President 2001-2008
These are people who were found guilty by a jury of their peers. These are people who have had full access to the courts of law. There's no doubt in my mind that each person who's been executed in our state was guilty of the crime committed. I support the death penalty for this reason: When the death penalty is administered in a ... sure and fair way, it will save lives. It will save lives.     
16 Feb 2000   Source
Islamic Jihadist
If I'm killed, I will be killed for the sake of God. I've been seeking to be a martyr for years. ... I wish to be martyred.     
05 Jun 2008   Source
Disagree
AnswerExpert
Quote
Christian Church headed by the Pope, Vatican City
A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is cruel and unnecessary.     
27 Jan 1999   Source
Economist, Law Professor
The view that the death penalty deters is still the product of belief, not evidence. The reason for this is simple: over the past half century the U.S. has not experimented enough with capital punishment policy to permit strong conclusions .... In light of this evidence, is it wise to spend millions on a process with no demonstrated value that creates at least some risk of executing innocents when other proven crime-fighting measures exist? Even consequentialists ought to balk.     
01 Apr 2004   Source
The ACLU believes that, in all circumstances, the death penalty is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. We also believe that the death penalty continues to be applied in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.     
09 Apr 2007   Source
United States President 2009-
While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes--mass murder, the rape and murder of a child--so heinous that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment. On the other hand, the way capital cases were tried in Illinois at the time was so rife with error, questionable police tactics, racial bias, and shoddy lawyering, that 13 death row inmates had been exonerated.     
01 Oct 2006   Source