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Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Have Been Executed

By TChris, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Fri Dec 02, 2005 at 01:08:32 PM EST
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by TChris

The bad news is that Kevin Boyd was executed this morning, making him victim 1,000 of the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1976. The good news is that the nation appears to be falling out of love with death.

Amid the refinement of DNA techniques and the sporadic release of inmates from death row because of uncertain guilt, a growing number of people tell pollsters they believe that innocent prisoners have been executed. Although the majority of cases over the past three decades have been upheld, legal errors and sometimes poor defense work revealed during layers of appeals have convinced many Americans that the system is imperfect.

"There's a skepticism about the accuracy of the system and, to some degree, the fairness," said Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "It's not quite the ticket to the statehouse if you promise to execute more and more and speed it up. You have religious leaders voicing concerns. You have conservatives. The lines aren't as clear as they were before."

If it is established (as now seems likely) that Texas executed an innocent man — Ruben Cantu — expect further erosion of support for this uncorrectable punishment.

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    Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Have Been Executed | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:36 PM EST
    Wow TChris.... you're really grasping on this one... First you say... Support For Death Penalty Declines a very strong statement... Then you say....the nation appears to be falling out of love with death. Big difference in it 'declining' and then 'appearing' to decline! Then...when one reads the link, it turns out to have 'supposedly' dropped a whopping 5% in 12 years! I'd hardly call that 'significant'. Public opinion polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans support the death penalty, but that is a significant drop from the peak, in 1994, when 80 percent of respondents told Gallup pollsters they were in favor of capital punishment. But keep plugging away.... maybe in 12 more years ( with a constant bombardment of political correctness) you can get it down another 'significant' 5%?

    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#2)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:37 PM EST
    Political correctness = publicizing that innocent people have been executed. Ooooook

    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:37 PM EST
    BB:
    Then...when one reads the link, it turns out to have 'supposedly' dropped a whopping 5% in 12 years! I'd hardly call that 'significant'.

    Public opinion polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans support the death penalty, but that is a significant drop from the peak, in 1994, when 80 percent of respondents told Gallup pollsters they were in favor of capital punishment.

    But keep plugging away.... maybe in 12 more years (with a constant bombardment of political correctness) you can get it down another 'significant' 5%?

    Forget political correctness, how about some simple mathematical correctness? You seem to be under the mistaken impression that two thirds is equal to 75%. How else do you arrive at your claim that the drop in support from 80% to two-thirds was only 5%? But -- since you are obviously not mathematically adept -- if you will just get out your calulator, divide 2 by 3, and multiply the result by 100, you'll find that two-thirds is actually 66.67%. Subtracting that from 80 will demonstrate that the actual drop has been 13.33% in 12 years -- a rate of more than 1% a year. Not so trivial after all, eh? So if it were to drop for 12 more years at the present rate, as you suggest, support for the death penalty will be down to 53.33% by 2018, and below 50% by 2022. Now that your reasoning has been proved faulty, will you now revise your conclusions?

    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#4)
    by jimcee on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:37 PM EST
    As odd as it may sound the only reason I support the death penalty is because those that oppose it lobby for life in prison. They are the same people who also lobby that those who are sentenced to life in prison are subject to the 'cruel and unusual' clause.(See that Belgian fella who wrote here a while back) If you could guarantee they would never leave the prison system I'd be OK by that. Somehow I believe that soon enough life in prison in some preciencts is cruel and unusual. In other words that slippery slope thingee will give murderers a free pass. Nice for civil rights, but it sucks if a family member is the victim.

    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:37 PM EST
    jimcee:
    Nice for civil rights, but it sucks if a family member is the victim.
    So your argument for the death penalty is founded on the need for revenge -- why else would the feelings of 'a family member' enter into a discussion of what is an appropriate punishment? But what if the family recognizes that killing a second person will not restore the life of their loved one, and does not desire revenge? Then do you opt for the death penalty anyway, or the 'cruel and unusual punishment' of life imprisonment, or ... what? Just curious how your logic plays out in that case, since I do not understand how your mind works.

    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:37 PM EST
    As odd as it may sound the only reason I support the death penalty is because those that oppose it lobby for life in prison. They are the same people who also lobby that those who are sentenced to life in prison are subject to the 'cruel and unusual' clause.
    I think you'll find very few liberals that believe life in prison is the best alternative to the death penalty. 10 years from now, with enough Conservative judicial appointments, States will be giving 10 year olds lethal injections for drug trafficking.

    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:42 PM EST
    "I think you'll find very few liberals that believe life in prison is the best alternative to the death penalty." Just out of curiosity, what is their alternative? Letting them out? Great, I feel really safe now. Here's a fun fact, California spends more money than any other state to rehibilitate criminals. Strangely enough, they have the highest rate of repeat offenders. Hmmm...It appears we could use more options.

    Re: Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Ha (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:06:46 PM EST
    I'm really in awe of the things liberals believe about the death penalty. First off, are you aware that prisoners would pick the death penalty over life in prison? Second, I have to say it...you're so incredibly concerned about maybe possibly there is an extremely small chance someone was wrongfully accused of murder, which rarely happens...yet, the undeniably innocent life of an unborn baby is worth nothing to you? Get your priorities straight!

    Support For Death Penalty Declines As 1,000 Have Been Executed | 8 comments (8 topical)