What are the two sides of the death penalty Is it a cruel and inhumane punishment or just a fitting punishment?

Answer 1

Everyone has some opinion on this question. In the US, the crux of the matter is that in the states that still have the death penalty, it exists as a reflection of the will of the citizens of that state. In a Democracy that's how we work.

Another Opinion

Another issue at the crux of the matter is whether a civilized society should kill people as a punishment. It is curious that most of the people who are against abortion favor the death penalty.

Another issue at the crux of the matter is that many, many innocent people have been put to death in the states where the death penalty is used the most; Texas for example. There have been many thousands of Horror stories about the inadequacy of the legal representation that was received by people on death row. In only one well documented story a court appointed lawyer reportedly slept through most of the trial and his client was found guilty and sentenced to death. The man appealed and the court upheld the conviction and the penalty. Many court systems do not uphold the Constitutional right to an adequate legal representation.

Another issue at the crux of the matter is that poor people are sentenced to death at such a greater rate than people who can afford good legal representation. Of course, those numbers are also affected by other Demographics such as race.

It is a multi-faceted issue. Sometimes it is just and many times it is not. Therefore, many people believe the many problems with sentencing people to death should make us abandon it completely in the United States.

With the high number of false convictions (due to the prosecutorial belief that somebody has to pay for a heinous crime so round up the usual suspects and "ne'er do wells" and make one of them the fall guy) it is increasingly untenable for the death penalty to be enforced.