There was a time when I favored abolishing the death penalty if guaranteed no chance of release. Not only has this never been the case, but without even a threat of death, lifers go on killing or attempting to do so while in prison. Why not?

Guards are in extreme danger daily as are other prisoners. The gangs control prison life, since prisoners know they will kill if crossed and guards will be constrained by laws.

We currently have a man up for parole who raped, tortured and killed a paper boy decades ago. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison, but every three years the victim’s family is again confronted with the possibility he will be released. Every three years they are once again subjected to reminders of the terrible pain and suffering of their son and brother.

There is no reason a piece of garbage like this man should be maintained by anyone. A bullet in the head would be quick and sure and there would be no problem finding someone to pull the trigger.

How can we justify killing innocent unborn children and keeping people like this alive?

I need to vote for choices ” a,  b,  c,  &  d ” ... excluding ” e “,  in order to do justice to the combination of rational and emotional elements that apply to this complex matter.  There are simply no facts in favor of the death penalty as deterrant,  &  plenty of room for improvement in the process of ” correction ”  as is suggested by the bureaucratic nomenclature..

tmw3,

Without the death penalty as an option, a convicted killer while in prison he has little or nothing to lose by killing a fellow inmate or guard. The death penalty is a definite deterent to that happening.

The main reason the official “death penalty” has not been a deterent is due to the long delay of the appeal process. The convict who threatens an other convict does it without appeal or delay — very effective in getting what he wants.

With new technology such as DNA testing we can be more sure than ever in assessing guilt.

Removing such terrorists from prison population would make rehab of other less dangerous criminals more likely.

We in Jersey haven’t wacked anybody in 25 years, so it’s obvious that the death penalty is a joke. It’s simply thta everybody involved in criminal justice just doesn’t want to kill an innocent person, so they’ve delayed the procedure so much it’ ain’t funny. It’s just the politicians and the “activists ” who don’t have to do any real work who demand that we wack the criminals.