The argument against the DP that I don't sympathize with:

[cali]

I want him/her to suffer and the DP lets him/her off too easy.

I've been against the DP since I was 7 or 8 and saw the Susan Hayward movie "I want to live" on TV. Funny the things that shape one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_to_Live!

Sorry about the digression, but it's weird to me that anyone would oppose the DP because they want something even worse for the offender.

I don't. I just want people who have committed a crime considered so horrible that rehabilitation isn't a consideration, and/or pose a threat, to be locked away for life.

If that makes me the proverbial bleeding heart liberal, I'm fine with that.

[aikoaiko]

1. That's just something they say to sound tough

Almost no convicted murderer argues for the DP instead of life. Even criminals know it's much worse to die than live in a box for the rest of their lives.

[cali]

3. I' not referring to convicted murderers. I'm referring to people in general

and folks here on DU. I thought I made that clear. I guess I didn't.

[yeoman6987]

4. I'd actually rather him in general population

He would not find it fun in there. That would be the best scenario for everyone on both sides of the issue.

[Chan790]

7. That's why the suicide rate for LwP inmates is so high.

No, it's an inverse Pascal's wager.

Die now or die later having been warehoused for 50 years. No real difference other than the long stretch of lonely empty time in the middle.

At the outset, the freshly-convicted criminal thinks like you think...LwP is better than death. They fight to be spared capital sentence. They get the LwP sentence they wanted...and it's so much worse than they can imagine. It's not like they can go back to court and ask to be sentenced to death though. Time starts to pass. Family members move on, children grow up, marry and have grandchildren who will never know you. Your life is a monotony. Worse, it's a fairly-crappy monotony. You think about what you did to end up there. You regret your crime. You wish you had it to do over again or to show you've changed in some way that will matter.

You start to think "Maybe I'd be better off dead. Maybe this is all there is. Maybe if I end my life, I can be at peace." Or you think "Maybe there is a life after death." and you desire to hasten your way to it. The result is the same.

Suicide ranks as the 3rd most common cause of death in prison behind natural causes and HIV/AIDS. Generally, those in their first four months of incarceration and those facing life sentences (there is some overlap) account for nearly 50% of prison suicides. (The highest suicide rate belongs however to death-row inmates and for similar reason...Going to die anyway, why wait for the state to get around to it?)

There is a really interesting D of J National Institute of Corrections paper on the subject, causes and possible resolutions available online here which came out of the national 1995 study of prison suicide rates and causes. It's really depressing and dry to read...but if the subject is one of interest to you, there are few resources as thorough as this one.

[marym625]

2. I guess my heart bleeds even more than yours

Seems we are not as alone in that as I thought. It's on your other post

[NuclearDem]

5. This.

There's a way to be wrong about being anti-death penalty, and opposing it because one thinks it's not cruel enough is it.

[malthaussen]

6. She won the Oscar for that one.

Pretty well-deserved, IIRC. I've seen it on TV a couple of times myself. Has some pretty important things to say about entrapment.

I've always thought it was a flaw in the police system that deparments are rated on arrests and convictions, as though police work were another product to be paid pieceword rates. This is a flaw that repeats itself through many forms of public service. Body count is a lousy way to evaluate success, since it just begs for corruption.

-- Mal

[TreasonousBastard]

8. I do not understand the displaced anger that causes...

some people to demand others suffer. Even people we can agree on are "evil." (Whatever that means)

I do understand the basic instinct for revenge, but if someone doesn't hurt you, why the need for vengeance?

A killer was caught-- how does it affect anyone personally what happens to him as long as he won't kill again?

[Bluenorthwest]

9. 'I Want to Live' was directed by Robert Wise, editor of 'Citizen Kane' and director of many great

films of a wildly diverse nature, 'Sound of Music', 'The Sand Pebbles', 'Andromeda Strain', 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'.
'I Want to Live' was scripted by Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz who is related to several film greats as well as to Ben Mankiewicz who hosts many of the films on TCM.


It's a great, great film and Hayward is ahead of her time and wonderful in it.

[First Speaker]

10. I genuinely don't know what I think about the death penalty...

...and God knows, I've thought about it plenty over the years. Usually, I know what I feel about Issue X or Issue Y, and can come up with arguments. But the arguments on both sides of this issue strike me as compelling. I am viscerally against the DP. But thinking about people like Ted Bundy, or Charles Manson, makes me viscerally for it. And thinking logically about it always leaves me in the middle. I guess if you forced me to choose, I'd be anti-DP. But I'm not comfortable with it.

[longship]

11. There are no rational arguments for the death penalty.

Period!