You're right...the death penalty doesn't cause all the crime, that is an assinine idea. But to think it doesn't affect crime at all is equally as assinine.

 

OK, but in that catagory they only list 15, not 20+, here they are:

Countries whose laws provide for the death penalty only for exceptional crimes such as crimes under military law or crimes committed in exceptional circumstances

ALBANIA, ARGENTINA, ARMENIA, BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, CHILE, COOK ISLANDS, EL SALVADOR, FIJI, GREECE, ISRAEL, LATVIA, MEXICO, PERU, TURKEY

And there are a couple dozen countries that haven't legally abolished it, but at the same time haven't carried out an execution in 10 years or more:

Countries which retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes such as murder but can be considered abolitionist in practice in that they have not executed anyone during the past 10 years and are believed to have a policy or established practice of not carrying out executions. The list also includes countries which have made an international commitment not to use the death penalty


ALGERIA, BENIN, BRUNEI DARUSSALAM, BURKINA FASO, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, CONGO (Republic), GAMBIA, GRENADA, KENYA, MADAGASCAR, MALDIVES, MALI, MAURITANIA, NAURU, NIGER, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SENEGAL, SRI LANKA, SURINAME, TOGO, TONGA, TUNISIA



I thought it most interesting to see the comparison between the countries with the biggest differences in their attitudes, those that have completely abolished it and those that still execute people for "ordinary" crimes, so thats why I posted the first two lists.

As for why we should be in with "good company", hey maybe we shouldn't I mean after all since we're the greatest country in the world, it doesn't matter how draconian our laws are or what civil or human rights are being violated around here.

We can torture prisoners and execute innocent people who've been railroaded by bigot racists because we're the greatest country on earth!

don't be baffled, just because they eat bugs in Vanuatu, they execute folks too, so they're like us and were the greatest country on earth!

Man, it sure is great living in the greatest country on earth!

 

When did I say it had no effect at all?

 

At the same time, never in my presentations did I argue that abolishing the death penalty will have any impact on our crime rates.

The only thing for certain is that abolishing the death penalty will as a matter of fact abolish wrongful executions, which would actually be fixing one aspect of our otherwise borken system.

Yeah there are other problems in our legal and judiciary system that allow for wrongful convictions, but sorting all of that out is a lot more work than abolishing the death penalty.

But who cares anyway, because after all....

we're the greatest country on earth!

 

"This goes to you and to Psoper, btw. There are so many things that go into a nation's problem with crime that to say "DEATH PENALTY AFFECT IT, just look at this simple chart" is asnine."


Right there

 

yeah, that's not what I said. Reread the post, then try again. Oh what the heck, I'll quote it for you:

"This goes to you and to Psoper, btw. There are so many things that go into a nation's problem with crime that to say "death penalty affects it, just look at this simple chart" is asnine."

Now besides the typo with asinine, I don't see where you're getting what you do. I pretty clearly said there it was stupid to draw a conclusion about this based on a simple chart. How did you get out of that sentence: "The death penalty does not affect crime"?

 

Sorry, I wasn't looking at list and was trying to go off memory seeing how i actually did a paper on this in a philosophy class not too long ago.

 

I don't understand why you say things like this?

 

My take: I think that there are criminals who deserve the death penalty. It is an appropriate and just punishment for some crimes. It's just that I don't trust the government/court system to administer it. They make too many mistakes. And once they are dead, there is no way to correct a mistake.