Do you agree with capital punishment?
This year, executions were trendy due to elections time in main countries, as well as scandalous news and inquiries from human rights institutions which demand the end of executions as a way to penalise faulty behaviour. Some Wikileaks reports also brought serious attention to torture to people in jail and in the army itself.

The discussion continues: Are executions a fair and effective way to punish criminals? Why? Why not?
And if it is fair, how must these executions be carried out?
There have been numerous studies in order to study this last question. But there has also been evidence of the fact that some institutions, even from the justice system, do not care about the way in which these procedures are carried out.


Let's share our opinions!

Thats a hard topic. In my opinion executions are the wrong way to punish criminals. I think it's wrong to kill a murder because he kill someone. In German there is a phrases but I don't know a translation for this with the same meaning "Es ist nicht gut gleiches mit gleichen zu vergelten" .
But sometimes I think what will I thinking when anyone doing something to family. For example you are a mother from a little girl and a murder kill it. After this do you think the same about executions ? I'm not sure what I will think in that case but I think to kill this person will don't bring for example the little girl back. A few years ago in Germany a men who killed a little girl was released from prison because his penalty was offer. After a few weeks in liberty he killed a other little girl. So what would you think in this case ?

Nicole wrote:That's a hard topic. In my opinion executions are the wrong way to punish criminals. I think it's wrong to kill a murderer because he killed someone. In German there is a phrase but I don't know a translation for this with the same meaning "Es ist nicht gut gleiches mit gleichen zu vergelten" .
But sometimes I think what will I thinking when anyone doing something to family. For example you are a mother of a little girl and a murder kill it. After this do you think the same about executions ? I'm not sure what I will think in that case but I think to kill this person will not bring for example the little girl back. A few years ago in Germany a man who killed a little girl was released from prison because his penalty was offered. After a few weeks in liberty he killed another little girl. So what would you think in this case?

I know what you mean when you say it's not logical to kill a killer to demonstrate that killing is wrong. That's my perspective, I am pro-life, so I disagree with capital punishment as a way to reach justice.

I agree with you, you can't see things well until you go through these situations. It's hard to tell how fair it is if you haven't been a victim or seen directly what these crimes bring about.

I think, however, that it's not logical that a human being sentences another human in that way, when we're all imperfect, and when the system can be faulty, biased or even corrupted. That's what most of the cases of capital punishment reflect.

I think of cases like the one you've mentioned - criminals who are somehow forgiven and end up commiting more crimes - and I think that, more than execution, what the government and these institutions should think of is how to make jails constructive, so that in their imprisonment criminals can be corrected by means of psychological and physical support. Otherwise, no matter how many years they spend in jail or how they're executed, there will never be justice. Well, that's in my opinion.
Some others think that killing criminals satisfies justice.

I think killing criminals don't help everyone but I think there must be another way that murders don't come out of the prison when they are dangerous for other people again. In this case I've mentioned psyologists said that if this person free he want kill again but nobody could do anything that he didn't come free because there is a new EU - council directiv. With this directiv it is forbidden to arrangement subsequent preventive detention. So the man was free after the time from the penalty was offered. In Germany there is no execution to punish criminals and I'm happy about this but I think we need a harder tougher legal system, so that such things can not be repeated.

Nicole wrote:In this case I've mentioned psychologists said that if this person is freed he will want to kill again but nobody could do anything that he didn't come free because there is a new EU - council [b]directive/b]. With this directive it is forbidden to arrangement subsequent preventive detention. [...] In Germany there is no execution to punish criminals and I'm happy about this but I think we need a harder tougher legal system, so that such things can not be repeated.

Well, I must say I agree. Sometimes the legal system is so feeble that you feel it practically rewards the criminal by setting him free just after being captured. As there's delusion when seeing this, some people come to think the fairest alternative is something harder, more radical. And capital punishment is, in some people's opinion, the best option to make it a serious system.

I agree that preventive detention, followed by an effective investigation and action, is the best way to start solving these justice gaps. Also, a more strict legislation, reliable institutions which monitor these laws are carried out and an imprisonment system which favours a rehab process are necessary. These are not the priorities of many governments, though. In the end, capital punishment ends up being a matter of taking the easy way out, as well as a way to control citizens' minds.
If you see the list of inmates awaiting for their execution, you'll see that more than 90% of these people belong to minorities. And it's not because people belonging to minorities are the ones who commit more crimes, but because they're defenseless. Is that justice?