It is called desperation. Desperate people do desperate things. If someone can’t pay the bills they can’t feed themselves are they suppose to go hungry? I agree that many poor people will hold there moral principles high no matter how much they suffer but not everyone is that strong. The easier life is for people the less likely they will look for an and easy way out. Some people think there situation is so bad that they would rather be in prison then on the streets. At least in prison you get shelter and 3 square meals a day. If you don’t believe me then check the statistics. Look at the employment rate vs the crime rate. See if there is any correlation.

The attempt to draw parallels regarding poverty & crime is useless. If there was a connection, then why is it that there is, generally speaking, less crime in poor countries than rich ones?

Most crime like theft etc are committed becaue of greed and envy.

on the issue of a death penalty i have a solid view that i really feel is uncontestable - but no dout it will be :D

it is uncontestable that not everyone who is in jail is guilty. humans make errors, sometimes court is a place to purely gudge who's word is more valued. There ARE incarcerated people who are innocent. therefore there have been people put to death for crimes they did not commit. i feel that in this situation that is not aceptable.


also i had read [until he was realeased] for 2 years the weekly article of a convicted murderer and he was fully repentant and fully rehabilitated. when he left he became a normal member of society that paid his bills and worked a job.

so for the prison situation you can either ask for punishment which will most likey leave a resentful, hating person that is more likely to re-offend. or you can rehabilitate and hopefully gain a new contributing member of society.

Russia would be a good example of this right . Anyway as another example take a country like the united states and compare property values with crime rates.

I personally don't agree with the death penalty being used for drug smuggling, but since this penalty was made very clear, I guess I can't argue with it.

I believe in the idea of the death penalty. I believe that the death penalty should be applied whenever someone has the ability to harm people if left alive. This includes: serial killers, serial rapists (who have gone through therapy and failed multiple times), pedifiles (same as previous), calculating murderers (lots of pre-planning), terrorists, genocidal dictators (Saddam Hussein) and the like. I think the death penalty has not been used enough, with people like Gary Ridgeway (raped and killed 49 women before he was caught, got the death penalty, but got lessened to life terms instead because he told police about where and how he killed many of the women). If there is any way to rehabilitate the individual, then the death penalty should not be used, otherwise, the individual should be killed because he has no chance of rehab and does not deserve to live anymore (he has given up that right).

Oh, I use he in the general sense referring to both men and women.

Only Humans deserve human rights..........someone who could rape and kill a child is not human

In my opinion, there is only one rational reason to give a sentence of death. That is murder. Yet I do believe that there are two very rational reasons to oppose the death penalty even in this case. The first reason is that not every criminal convicted is actually guilty. The death penalty for every murder case means that some innocent people will get killed. The second, and some may find this silly, is that it gives the government a right that we ourselves don't have. If you come home and find out your family has been murdered you're not allowed to kill the guy who did it, but government is.

First, I read something about the US (previous posts), where the jail system is supposed to be too nice? Really have to ask, where you from? I'm from Holland, and in comparison with where I'm from, the US has quite a harsh criminal system.
But, to get back on the subject - Death penalty, right or wrong? - I just have to say wrong. I know, me too can imagine situations in which the death penalty looks like the right solution (I think numerous examples already are mentioned in previous posts..), but, still a lifetime in jail is much worse. I think...
What I do think is that the justice system cán be too 'nice' sometimes. Especially here in Holland! In this country you're better of raping someone (about 3-7 months jailtime) then burning 7 cars (about 2-3 years!)... It's hopeless..

I don't think I would ever support killing another person unless your own life depended on it. I just don't see any good reason t o do so. As some people have already said, it is an easy way out. Sure they go through the stress and fear just before hand, but then it is over. Keeping someone in a boring prison cell for the rest of their life is much worse punishment. They know they will be there fr the rest of their life, with no chance of freedom and they have to wait it out. Not many people get the death penalty so I don't suppose that it puts too much more of a burden on our taxes
(I could be wrong about that. I don't really know) to keep them alive.

I don't think I would ever support killing another person unless your own life depended on it. I just don't see any good reason t o do so. As some people have already said, it is an easy way out. Sure they go through the stress and fear just before hand, but then it is over. Keeping someone in a boring prison cell for the rest of their life is much worse punishment. They know they will be there fr the rest of their life, with no chance of freedom and they have to wait it out. Not many people get the death penalty so I don't suppose that it puts too much more of a burden on our taxes
(I could be wrong about that. I don't really know) to keep them alive.