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NEWS: Tomohiro Katō Sentenced to Death for Akihabara Killings

I, personally, am not willing to take the chance of killing someone innocent (and hence, letting one guilty person stay free) in the name of harshness.

Jesus already paid for our sins. Technically we're all innocent.

Yet even though we don't have the death penalty, some of these people have had their lives destroyed by being left to rot in prison for up to 26 years. Sure, we can let them out now but we can hardly give them back all that time

egoist wrote:

Jesus already paid for our sins. Technically we're all innocent.

Prove Jesus existed, then maybe thats a valid argument. Religion and Law are seperate, thats how it has to be, because by default people who hold a religion have biased views and opinions, and cannot accurately judge someone solely based on innocence or guilt.

This waste of human meat? Meh, sharpen some fast growing bamboo and stake him out over it. I hear that works well and it's cheap.

boznia wrote:

Our overflowing prisons have more to do with strict anti-drug laws than murders.

Of course. We all love to have them druggies living next door rather than prisons. Know a good solution you could pass on to your president? Build a druggie state/island, legalize drugs, but restrict it to only government officials and card payments (to avoid corruption).

Nemo_N wrote:

I, personally, am not willing to take the chance of killing someone innocent (and hence, letting one guilty person stay free) in the name of harshness.

Freedom is not the issue. We are talking about punishment. Ergo, we are considering those who have already been convicted, wrongfully or otherwise. In that case, the alternative to the death penalty is not freedom. It is life imprisonment. Again, I question why you'd be perfectly willing to risk locking an innocent person away for life but not risking killing them.

Killing people and locking them up are very, very different things. As horrible as wrongful imprisonment can be, there is still a chance at justice, through release and compensation.

You can't do that with dead people.

Nemo_N wrote:

Killing people and locking them up are very, very different things. As horrible as wrongful imprisonment can be, there is still a chance at justice, through release and compensation. You can't do that with dead people.

Look, we can agree to disagree about the death penalty itself but don't try to sell me on this line of 'there's a chance' reasoning. Yes, there is a chance. Yet many who are wrongfully convicted are not ever released or compensated. So while there may be a chance at justice in any individual case, overall you're still choosing to accept that we'll punish some innocent people as well. That's where this whole thing seems like a cop out to me. People are horrified by the prospect of an innocent person being wrongfully punished and hey, fair enough. It is horrifying. Clinging to this small chance for justice does not mean there will be justice though. In the end, whether it's life imprisonment or the death penalty, you're going to end up punishing innocent people. You have to accept that.

Here you imply that because life in prison is horrible and killing someone is horrible they are somehow equivalent. They are not.

It may be a harsher penalty with the death penalty, but then life imprisonment is quite harsh (although not as harsh) as well.

ikillchicken wrote:

It may be a harsher penalty with the death penalty, but then life imprisonment is quite harsh (although not as harsh) as well.

Yea of course, there's only such a small difference between the two, between life and death, might as well ignore it x_x

maaya wrote:

ikillchicken wrote: It may be a harsher penalty with the death penalty, but then life imprisonment is quite harsh (although not as harsh) as well. Yea of course, there's only such a small difference between the two, between life and death, might as well ignore it x_x

What maaya said.