this issue may have been discussed umpteen times already, but the execution of iraqi dictator saddam hussain has raised few questions yet again to be answered.

1) is captial punishment (death penalty), the way to go?
2) is another death an answer to a death?
3) if human cannot control over life, how fair is it to let them take it away?
3) is life imprisonment, a more ethical and fair punishment than death penalty?

An interesting american stat:


National Death Penalty Fact Sheet

States With the Death Penalty
* indicates number of executions since 1976

Alabama 34 Arizona 22 Arkansas 27 California 13
Colorado 1 Connecticut 1 Delaware 14 Florida 61
Georgia 39 Idaho 1 Illinois 12 Indiana 17
Kansas* Kentucky 2 Louisiana 27 Maryland 5
Mississippi 7 Missouri 66 Montana 3 Nebraska 3
Nevada 12 New Hampshire* New Jersey* New Mexico 1
New York* N. Carolina 43 Ohio 23 Oklahoma 83
Oregon 2 Pennsylvania 3 S. Carolina 36 S. Dakota*
Tennessee 2 Texas 376 Utah 6 Virginia 97
Washington 4 Wyoming 1 U.S. Govt 3 U.S. Military*

States Without the Death Penalty

Alaska Hawaii Iowa Maine
Mass. Michigan Minnesota N. Dakota
Rhode Island Vermont W. Virginia Wisconsin
D. of Columbia

Total Number on Death Row as of April 1, 2006: 3,370 (NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.)

Total Executions Since 1976: 1047

The Death Penalty is Unfair!

1) The death penalty is unfair.
The death penalty has never been applied fairly across race, class, and gender lines. Who is sentenced to die often depends on the attitudes of prosecutors, where one lives, the prejudices of judges and juries, and the skills of defense lawyers.

2) The death penalty risks killing innocent people.
As of April 2005, 119 prisoners convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death have been released from death row because of innocence, since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. DNA tests play a major role in proving innocence.

Wrongful convictions often result from: false confessions, which are frequently coerced from juveniles and mentally retarded people; mistaken eyewitness evidence; jail house snitches; white-coat fraud and junk science; and prosecutorial abuse.

3) The death penalty punishes the poor.
Most defendants are poor must rely on publicly appointed attorneys who are sometimes unqualified, inexperienced or incompetent. Some lawyers have slept or appeared drunk during trials.

4) The death penalty is racially biased.
Many jurisdictions, which have studied their death penalty systems including Maryland, Georgia, Philadelphia, Indiana, and North Carolina, have found that people who kill white people are far more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill black people.

5) The death penalty costs more than life in prison.
Prosecuting a death penalty case is extremely expensive for a state and drains money that could be used for education and social programs. It costs more than sentencing a prisoner to life without parole.

The most comprehensive death penalty study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment (Duke University, May 1993). In its review of death penalty expenses, the State of Kansas concluded that capital cases are 70% more expensive than comparable non-death penalty cases.

6) The death penalty is opposed by a growing number of murdered victims' families.
Groups such as Murdered Victims Families for Reconciliation and Journey of Hope from Violence to Healing oppose the death penalty.

7) The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime.
Since the death penalty was reinstated, over 80% of all executions have occurred in the South, the region with the highest murder rate. The Northeast, the region with the lowest murder rate, has accounted for less than 1% of the executions.

8) The death penalty is not used in most countries around the world.
118 countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in either law or practice.

LooTe

Death penalty is a chicken face of the executioner and the law. history proves, it has never brought any change in the criminals. Why is crime statistics going high even though death is imposed? why are some countries not involved in crimes despite being handicapped of death law. Nepal, excluding civil was, has least number of crimes-without any death penalty law.
Loote has observed closely.
I am proud of u my son!
Jai Hindu

i am against dealth penalty too.

Death penalty is fair .......... why do we bother if we can give life back or not ........ Death penalty is sentenced to only those who r deemed not fit to be alive, who does not deserve life. Yeah we can give life ......... thats how we all were born rt ???? lol

In truth and reality.....

In Nepal, We need to implement and legally give death penalty to those criminals and corrupted political crooks.

No Nepali crooks must be escaped.

if death penalty is fair, lets implement it in nepal and apply it to gyane, girija, prachande, baburame, govinde, khume, kamal thapa so and so

but i guess they deserve more painful deaths than just hanging

Fair ra unfair ko kura chodi diu yaar....crime gare pachi punishment ta hunai paryo ni...natra ta lawlessness vahi halyo ni

lawlessnesss is already gripping Nepal because Maoists murderers and butchers were allowed to join the mainstream.. but yet they are still talking the language of intimidation and fear.

this is a social debate. does death penalty make socitey better? are there alternatives? can a justice system be flawless and only convict criminals? does death penalty decrease crime rate? what kind of message are we sending to future generations regarding problems and their solution(s)? is death the sternest and most acceptable form of punishment that this "civilized" world can offer? there could be more questions of course. after answering these simple questions, i have come to the conclusion of opposing the death penalty.

Some more interesting stats:

Public Opinion Polls on the Death Penalty

In 1965, according to a Harris poll, 38 percent of U.S. poll respondents believed in the death penalty; 47 percent opposed it. In 2001, 67 percent said they believed in the death penalty and only 26 percent opposed it. A 1996 poll (no longer available online) conducted by Sam Houston State University found that 73.4 percent of respondents nationwide favored the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, but of those, 20.1 percent no longer favored the death penalty if convicted murderers were given a "true" life sentence -- that is, sentenced to life imprisonment without possiblity of parole.

Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty

From DeborahWhite

Capital punishment, also dubbed the "death penalty," is the pre-meditated and planned taking of a human life by a government in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person.

Passions in the US are sharply divided, and equally strong among both supporters and protesters of the death penalty.

Arguing against capital punishment, Amnesty International believes that "The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state in the name of justice. It violates the right to life...It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. There can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment."

Arguing for capital punishment, the Clark County, Indiana Prosecuting Attorney writes that "...there are some defendants who have earned the ultimate punishment our society has to offer by committing murder with aggravating circumstances present. I believe life is sacred. It cheapens the life of an innocent murder victim to say that society has no right to keep the murderer from ever killing again. In my view, society has not only the right, but the duty to act in self defense to protect the innocent."

And Catholic Cardinal McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington, writes "...the death penalty diminishes all of us, increases disrespect for human life, and offers the tragic illusion that we can teach that killing is wrong by killing."


AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY (CONS)

For source, click here

Death Penalty Fails to Rehabilitate

What would it accomplish to put someone on death row? The victim is already dead-you cannot bring him back. When the opponents feel “fear of death” will prevent one from committing murder, it is not true because most murders are done on the “heat of passion” when a person cannot think rationally. Therefore, how can one even have time to think of fear in the heat of passion (Internet)?

Death Penalty Failed as a Deterrent

Some criminologist claim they have statistically proven that when an execution is publicized, more murders occur in the day and weeks that follow. A good example is in the Linberg kidnapping. A number of states adopted the death penalty for crime like this, but figures showed kidnapping increased. Publicity may encourage crime instead of preventing it (McClellan, G., 1961).

Death is one penalty which makes error irreversible and the chance of error is inescapable when based on human judgment . On the contrary, sometimes defendants insist on execution. They feel it is an act of kindness to them. The argument here is - Is life imprisonment a crueler fate?” Is there evidence supporting the usefulness of the death penalty securing the life of the citizens (McClellan, G. 1961)?

Does the death penalty give increased protection against being murdered? This argument for continuation of the death penalty is most likely a deterrent, but it has failed as a deterrent. There is no clear evidence because empirical studies done in the 50’s by Professor Thorsten Sellin, (sociologist) did not give support to deterrence (McClellan, G., 1961).

Does not Discourage Crime

It is noted that we need extreme penalty as a deterrent to crime. This could be a strong argument if it could be proved that the death penalty discourages murderers and kidnappers. There is strong evidence that the death penalty does not discourage crime at all (McClellan, G., 1961).

Grant McClellan (1961) claims:

In 1958 the10 states that had the fewest murders –fewer than two a year per 100,000 population -were New Hampshire Iowa, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Utah, North Dakota and Washington. Four of these 10 states had abolished the death penalty. The 10 states, which had the most murderers from right to fourteen killings per100,000 population were Nevada, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and Virginia - all of them enforce the death penalty. The fact is that fear of the death penalty has never served to reduce the crime rate (p. 40).

Conviction of the Innocent Occurs

The states that have the death penalty should be free of murder, but those states have the most murders, and the states that abolished the death penalty has less. Conviction of the innocent does occur and death makes a miscarriage of justice irrevocable. Two states Maine and Rhode Island abolished the death penalty because of public shame and remorse after they discovered they executed some innocent men.

Fear of Death Does not Reduce Crime

The fear of the death penalty has never reduced crime. Through most of history executions were public and brutal. Some criminals were even crushed to death slowly under heavy weight. Crime was more common at that time than it is now. Evidence shows execution does not act as a deterrent to capital punishment.

Motives for Death Penalty - Revenge

According to Grant McClellan (1961), the motives for the death penalty may be for revenge. Legal vengeance solidifies social solidarity against law breakers and is the alternative to the private revenge of those who feel harmed.

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LooTe

What is the use of killing someone who is already dead?
Shame on you America & all the Americans who voted for such government!
Shame on the Puppet Iraqui government!
Shame on us who can just watch & sigh over the execution video tape of Saddam Hussein!
How helpless are we?Pathetic!

cleopatra is 100 percent right.
the killing and to give birth is the natural process.

Shame on the world ! when Saddam Gased People to Death .

Go America ! the only Nation on the face of the Earth who deals with the Evil.

Where were u while we're getting high?

lol

so you think this 70 yrs old got enough pain he deserve? He enjoyed his life and he deserve to be in prison for rest of his life not to be hanged in front of the world. So you think the evils around us will not retaliate against humanities from this hanging? I don’t think so.. they will prepare for the worst and they are, North K and Iran nuclear preparation.
Punishment is to make you realize you did wrong. This fellow never got a chance to see what actually he did wrong and how he could have better served the people. War is still there, people are still dying everyday before and after.. bullshit. This is not a punishment but a game of politics and act of revenge.

Revenge can never restore the peace.

.

He WHO punishes EVIL is none but GOD! NONE got the right except him to punish fellow human being.

HUMANs if come to a conclusion to punish someone who is "considered" an EVIL , nothing could be better than HANGIN' THE DOER, yes the death penalty.

Its the fight/war/combat of the stronger beings over the weaker ones. No one can alter the impregnable!

I hear lot of sending messages to the society and being civil.

Why don't u reward Saddam ; he who never thought about third persons rights ; free will; freedom choice ; let him live; give him refuge and so on.

See wht kind of message you will be sending to dictators and so onn currently in misusing their power.

The message is clear ; wht goes around comes around ! I don't wht message you people are looking for.

wish they were
name them

saddam lai hang gardai ma dictatorship khattam hune haina.. there were others before saddam who met with the same fate. khai tyespachi paani dictators aauna banda bhayena.. he made many suffer tara his suffering ended too soon. it would be far fetched tara, i would have like to see him do some manual labor in iraq as the country gets rebuilt after its "savior" USA the great bombed the sh!t out of country leaving many iraqis in "shock" and many other in "awe." punishment ta hunu parcha tara kasto? that is the question. again marera problem solve huncha ra kasailai justice huncha bhanne concept jun cha death penalty advocates haru ko, yo message ma concentrate garu na.

I am a non believer in capital punishment!! no human has the right to decide the life of another human under any given circumstances. There are many other ways of punishing a criminal other than taking his life. What is the difference between a murderer and the authority that orders to kill?? I really don't see much difference when the end result is the same death!!

I totally agree with Dimple.......................if the end result is a loss of life than there is no difference.....................the only thing that bothers me is what the person did or committ to get the punishment???.....................did the guilty have right to take someones life.???....how terrible was the crime???.......was it rape and murder???, was it a pedoplhile who raped and killed a lot of kids???...was it a warlord who comitted a mass genocide killing thousands??? etc etc of all the terible things we humans are capable of doing..........either of being mentally sick, anger,money, power and controll, lust ,revenge and other various reasons we cant comprehend..........Unless it happens to us personally than the whole concept changes. Now where do we keep these sick people....locked up??? costing the government a lot of money OR punishing them to die ................ for the crimes they did,,,,,............ PLaying god and ordering someone to die is wrong because the person who ordered the execution to the people who did it is a party of legal murderers................you can turn wood into charcoal but no one can turn charcoal back to wood....you can kill some one but you cant bring him back to life...................................what is bad?? living with the consious that you took a life.............or a quick death to end the mental trauma????? ..........I dont know the answer.