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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Was Connecticut Wrong to Abolish The Death Penalty?

"This is not so much about deterrence, but about justice."

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by David Mark

Editor-in-Chief t

Image: AP.

The monster who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School deserved the death penalty. But that wouldn't have happened even if Adam Lanza had lived, now that Connecticut has abolished capital punishment, says a former Republican leader.

"A gunman who kills 20 kids, or one kid, or one person, has forfeited their life. They no longer deserve to live, and should be executed," former California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring wrote on Facebook Friday.

"And that's why I'm frustrated to learn that Connecticut abolished the death penalty just eight months ago. In my view this is not so much about deterrence, but about justice. Murderers give up their right to enjoy life, something they deprived the innocent."

In April Connecticut Governor Daniel Malloy (D) signed a bill that abolished the death penalty, making his state the 17th in the nation to abandon capital punishment and the fifth in five years to usher in a repeal. It replaced the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of release as the state's highest form of punishment.

After the carnage in Connecticut debate about capital punishment is just academic. Lanza, the gunman, committed suicide as first responders closed in.

Politix reporting and via CNN.

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Should Connecticut reinstate capital punishment?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • Fishbone345
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    @FollowTheMoney No it wouldn't. People who kill others aren't rational, they aren't thoroughly thinking about what they are doing, else they wouldn't do it. ;)
    You can't deter insanity.
  • Fishbone345
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    @FollowTheMoney Being against the death penalty isn't about having compassion for murderers as everyone, apparently you included feel.
    I don't have compassion for murderers, I have a severe hatred of them and I don't want us, the normal people to become like them. And that is what will happen.
  • View all 24 replies >
  • Fishbone345
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    Could you explain why Texas is still among the highest murder rates in the country, despite putting the most prisoners to death in the last decade then?
  • Fishbone345
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    @Bonnie_Blue Sure, I'm sure that was the explanation of all the highest rates that it contends with too. Illegals.
    What a poorly thought out and perfectly non legitimate response to a question. Way to prove your point, I was more hoping for stats and something to back up your claim, and you gave me nothing.
  • View all 22 replies >
  • bsking
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    ok so the libs are shocked and dismayed that common people can own a m4 bushmaster.....on the other hand they feel compassion for the worst criminals society knows to the extent of abolishing the ultimate penalty? typical .
  • martydotcom
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    only reason to ban is the cost vs life w/o parole. The last five executed in Fl spent more than 25 yrs on death row. Add to high security cost + million on lawyers - throw them in a hole and forget about them
  • bsking
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    @martydotcom I agree with that sentiment... however if they're convicted and sentenced to death I say that they get one chance at appeal that has to happen within 2 or 3 years and then that's it.. curtains
  • WilliamWallace
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    @Bonnie_Blue hey watch it!! That pesky unborn child deserves to die. It plans on putting a damper on their party lifestyle. God forbid someone have to deal with the consequences of their own actions.
  • WilliamWallace
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    @martydotcom that would be fine if we could throw them in a hole and forget about them. Instead they have to be supplied a better life than they ever had before.
  • View all 29 replies >
  • u
    ashgreen
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    No. We are one of the few developed nations in the world to still use the death penalty. We kill to show that it's wrong to kill people? It's more a matter of people don't want to pay to keep them alive, which is one of the most disturbingly callous things I've ever heard in my life. How does that make any sense to anyone?
  • Politicskid
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    It's about justice. Would you have been against killing Osama bin Laden despite the thousands of people he killed? What if back in WWII if we'd captured Hitler? He killed millions. Would you want to let him live?

    You don't think it's unreasonable to make taxpayers give a mass murderer free stuff for life? That is crazy. When I'm paying my taxes, I do it to help people who deserve it and provide me with my own security. Osama and Hitler don't deserve it. If somebody want to start a charity to help these lowlifes, and they offer to feed, guard, and house them for free for life, okay let them live. But until then, it's wrong to let them stay alive at the very people they made cry's expense.
  • u
    ashgreen
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    @Politicskid
    Yes, I would have been against killing them. Part of being a civilized society means not running around killing everyone who wrongs us. I'm a citizen of this country, and paying for public services like the prison system is part of living in this country. It's simply part of the social contract--you pay to keep the peace. I think it's barbaric to say, "I simply think your life isn't worth it" regardless of what they did. Our prison systems are a sentence worse than death in my opinion.

    We're not going to agree on this issue. We obviously have different things at stake in our moral constructs.
  • Politicskid
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    @ashgreen I find it crazy that you consider mass murder "wronging us". For crying out loud, it's the cruelest, most immoral thing a person can do!

    Honestly, if their going to rot in prison, how is there life worth it? Unless you want to let them out eventually...

    Look, sure we're one few industrialized countries with capital punishment, but we are also one of the few industrialized countries with real freedom.
  • u
    ashgreen
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    @Politicskid Murder is the most immoral thing a person can do? Then it seems pretty hypocritical to me to turn around and do the exact same thing to another human being, no matter how terrible a person they are. You can't have it both ways.

    I say imprison them and put them to some sort of good use for society making something, doing something. If capital punishment hangs around, we need to at least make something good come out of it--they should donate their organs, but the way we kill people makes that impossible.
    The way the system is now, you repay barbarism with the same.

    I'm sorry to say this, but I also cannot take your argument seriously due to your inability to use homophones correctly.
  • Politicskid
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    @ashgreen Capital punishment is not murder. Murder is without basis, or with insufficient basis. That is the difference.

    And yes, I'm not a real fan of lethal injection, either. I'd prefer a bullet to the head.
  • View all 13 replies >
  • Dave_Tech
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    Anti-abortion but pro-Death Penalty? More ironic is 80% of those who support the Death Penalty are Christians. I'm a Christian, but I also feel sickness when I read about the hundreds that have been killed by our States that were proven later to be innocent. I cannot live with that. Abolish the Death Penalty.
  • Fishbone345
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    @FollowTheMoney Lawyers are not what is wrong with the system in which wrongfully accused men are put to death. Eagerness, watering at the mouth if you will, to kill when a crime has been committed is the problem. And that's not just the lawyers suffering from that.
  • o
    Bonnie_Blue
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    Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

    Exodus 21:12 “Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.
  • FollowTheMoney
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    @Fishbone345 Litigation for profit, lawyers eager to make a name for them selves and thus securing their careers and fortunes are the motivation for over zealous prosecution.
  • Fishbone345
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    @FollowTheMoney District Attorney's? I think you are overestimating what their salaries are. The money for lawyers is working for firms and in big defense.
    The motivation for over zealous prosecution comes from pressure from a community. It always has.
  • View all 16 replies >
  • Flodiodoe
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    God said( send them to Me).This is what we have Laws for.We don't want people taking it upon themselves to get justice.If the Law keeps letting Us down on getting justice sooner or later people will take matters into their own hands.
  • Fishbone345
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    No, that is not what he said at all. You are obviously reading the wrong Bible, or else reading into what is there, not sure what is worse.
    Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, said the Lord. Romans 12:19
    It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." Deuteronomy 32:35
    As surely as the LORD lives," he said, "the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 1 Samuel 26:10
    O LORD, the God who avenges, O God who avenges, shine forth. Psalm 94:1
    Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. Proverbs 20:22
    For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." Hebrews 10:30
  • martydotcom
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    @Food4thoughts @fishbone345
    I assumed everyone knew that those two lines ARE in the bible. Here's Jule's lines

    Jules' speech from Ezekiel 25:17:
    'The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides with the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.'
    This is actually not directly from Ezekiel 25:17 and in fact, only the last sentence and part of the second last sentence will be found there.
  • View all 6 replies >
  • Fishbone345
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    "but state rights is a better thing."
    In that we agree. I am totally for States Rights. And in this case, Connecticut decided for itself. Shouldn't we as a nation respect that? I don't live there, I shouldn't have any say so on their state law.
  • View all 20 replies >
  • WilliamWallace
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    When the crime is more rewarding than the punishment is a deterrence, the crime will always prevail. It's simple. If I steal $10 and only get fined $5 I will steal all day long. If I steal $10 and lose a hand I will probably only do it one more time.
  • o
    woodtick57
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    The bible is a collection of stane-age myths of barbaric nature that we do not base our laws on. actually, no civilized countries base their laws on religion.
  • u
    Yorkguy
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    Yes the death penalty should be used more! We put them away for life and it costs us what? 30-40 grand a year to keep then alive! Maybe more!
  • mkberry85
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    The barbaric and outdated practice, capital punishment will not "seek justice" for the families. It will not bring them back. It will do nothing. In fact, the reason why CP was initially used wasn't for justice, but for deterrence, but any self-respecting intellectual person would know that CP IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE deterrence, neither specific nor general. Just research what in fact Deterrence Theory states and you can see for yourself how CP fails to act as an effective deterrence.

    Furthermore, the whole ideology that many individuals in the US has on seeking justice, which in fact is more revenge. This is in fact the reason that our prisons, jails, and community based corrections are so filled (which due to these laws that revenge minded individuals lobby our legislators to instill even harsher laws) is the reason that State governments have to implement early release programs- I guess very few people realizes that these programs in fact their own fault.

    Justice is harsher in the US than in any other industrialized country. Between 2,300,00 and 2,400,000 Americans are behind bars, roughly one in every 100 adults. If you include those that are in community-based correctional supervision, one adult in 31 is under “correctional” supervision. Proportionally on basis of total population, US incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan. Both state and federal facilities are overcrowded to the fact that it impedes on inmates human rights and the fact that they are so overcrowded, that they have become even more unsafe.
  • dudleysharp
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    Of course the death penalyty is a deterrent.

    -- LIFE: MUCH PREFERRED OVER EXECUTION:
    99.7% of murderers tells us "Give me life, not execution"
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/11/life-mu...

    -- Of course the Death Penalty Deters
    See sections C and D within
    The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/death-p...

    -- "DEATH PENALTY DETERRENCE CLARIFIED"
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/12/death-p...

    -- DETERRENCE, THE DEATH PENALTY & MURDER RATES
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/12/deterre...

    -- Innocents More At Risk Without Death Penalty
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2012/03/innocen...

    -- "Death Penalty, Deterrence & Murder Rates: Let's be clear"
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2009/03/death-p...
  • u
    CommonSense
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    If a person seriously believes they will get caught and they care about dying they will care about spending the rest of their life in prison.
    That after getting caught people prefer life to death doesn't mean there's a deterrent effect. People don't commit murder thinking they will get caught, unless they are trying to make a statement in which case getting executed makes more of a statement than being whisked away for the rest of one's life and forgotten about.
    If you don't think you'll get caught nothing can deter you.
  • Politicskid
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    I don't acre what you say...some people need to be punished, and in lots of cases this is the only true punishment for them. $0.25 for a bullet is a lot cheaper then the $1,000,000.00+ it costs the public to feed, house, and guard these lowlifes for the rest of there lives.
  • Jeff_Woehrle
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    A life inmate has nothing to lose. Therefore they are difficult to handle and particularly deadly when they escape. I've always been on the fence about the DP. It's costly to administer and takes too long, but it does solve the problem of escape and gives society its 'eye.'

    So I guess this was another law that the school murderer broke: He executed himself against the wishes of the state. Plus, he brought firearms into the 'gun-free zone' of the school.

    Interesting. I guess criminals really DO break the law, eh?
  • DARSB
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    Deterrence only works if the perp thinks he'll be caught.

    What intrigues me are the prolifers who favor the death penalty.
  • VeryLameduck
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    It's a pretty big deterrent if the person cares. Anyway it has to be brought back and made swifter: no death row 10 year Court objections: do away with death row and reenact the death penalty in CT.
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