In general, do you support the existence of the death penalty?

👍 Yes (43%) – "A life for a life. I feel that certain circumstances the the death penalty is acceptable. Like serial killers, and when people murder in cold blood where the evidence is undeniable. I also believe that people who rape children should also get the death penalty. Dead pedophiles, don’t reoffend."

• "The nature of the crimes committed by those who receive the death penalty as a sentence in the past two decades seems, at minimum, fair, as the souls of those people appear to have already left. The death penalty does serve as protection in our general prisoners. The death row individuals have already proven they will do anything for their own fulfillment and if something in a prison went awry, they could endanger others in that prison or even outside if the worst were to occur."

"There are some crimes that are just too heinous to go unpunished and I think closure for the victims’ families is important. You may argue that killing a murderer does not bring the victim back, but, were I the parent of a murdered child, for instance, the knowledge that my child was gone while their murderer still got to live, would be hard to bear."

• "There are crimes so heinous that making taxpayers pay for the perpetrators housing, health, and feeding is an obscene act. If the evidence is irrefutable and there is no doubt the act was committed with malice aforethought then that person needs to die."

"It acts both as a deterrent and as a form of permanent incapacitation. I do think that there should be more reforms and safeguards to prevent an innocent person from being executed, but in general I absolutely believe there are crimes worth dying for."

👎 No (43%) – "It is completely illogical. On one hand, we tell people it is wrong and unlawful to kill someone, but then the punishment is to kill someone?! It is simply revenge and nothing more."

• "Because (1) there are too many innocent people convicted; (2) putting someone on death row & ultimately terminating their life doesn’t work as a deterrent; (3) how is killing someone as a punishment for killing is wrong morally acceptable?"

"Our judicial system is so broken; it essentially comes down to how much money you can pay a lawyer, and what the mood of the judge and jury are on any given day. The numerous incidents of mistaken arrests, poor judgement, and new technologies that prove people who are serving life sentences are actually innocent make it hard for me to support the death penalty. Taking a human life is irreversible and I just don't think another human, with all their natural failings, poor judgement, and flawed perspectives should have the power to legally end a life."

• "The justice system isn't perfect, therefore someone who is innocent will be executed. It simply cannot be worth that risk. The question is not whether people deserve to die, but rather do we deserve to be able to kill them?"

"I don't believe that it is our place to "play God" in the case of the death penalty, and I think that a life sentence is just as effective as a punishment. I've come to feel as though the death penalty is an emotionally charged punishment fueled by a desire for retribution. Not only that, but on the chance that there was a wrongfully convicted person sentenced to the death penalty (have we all read Just Mercy?), the risk of potentially executing an innocent person is too great of a risk."

🤷 Unsure/other (14%) – "On the one hand, I think killing someone as a punishment is not something we should be able to decide on and the possibility of a wrongful conviction makes it risky because while you can release and compensate someone who was wrongfully imprisoned, you can’t unkill someone if they were wrongfully executed. On the other hand, I do believe there are people who are too dangerous to leave alive with the possibility of escape."

• "Capital punishment is a fraught topic. One the one hand, there’s keeping a potentially irredemiable criminal in conditions that aren’t conducive to anyone’s well-being for the rest of their lives, while on the other is the moral burden and responsibility for terminating those lives, along with using methods that have an alarming failure rate, which leads to the likelihood of inflicting inhumane suffering. On top of all hat, capital punishment does not seem to be much of a crime deterrent."