The death penalty is a good bad idea.

There are places in America where the penalty for killing someone is death. So when someone kills another person in a place where the penalty is the death, they are willingly taking that risk, that they may be killed, if caught, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. It's a gamble and sometimes one loses, and sometimes one does not lose. The usual debate question is the morality of the death penalty.

Should the government, i.e., the people, have the right to impose death as a penalty. Is it cruel and unusual punishment? If someone is being attacked by another individual, and kills that individual in self defense, we don't question whether their actions were cruel and unusual. We say they had the right to kill in self defense. The death penalty is collective self defense by the people, i.e., the government, to protect us from those who kill, where the penalty for their act of killing is the death penalty.

Not all murders are punishable by the death penalty. Each state and the federal government have different standards whereby the death penalty is the allowable sentence.

The death penalty is a bad idea because of why it exists in America. As it stands today, it is not justice at all but rather injustice. It is imposed mostly on men of color, and very rarely imposed on women at all. The majority of people sentenced to death are African-American and Latino, while whites who are found guilty and could be sentenced to death are not (get statistic). Women who should be sentenced to death, for killing their children for example, are not, because well we just don't do that in America.

If we had an immediate sentence of death any time any person was found guilty of premeditated murder, then justice would be served. Juries should not have to determine that sentence, only find the person guilty. Once guilt was shown, sentence would be immediately imposed. The appeal process would only be used to show that the jury was incorrect about the finding of guilt. In keeping with my not so humble opinion about the criminal industrial complex injustice system, capital case juries would be required to be knowledgeable about the law.

The purpose of the prosecution would really be to find the truth, not find guilt, or to seek that ephemeral justice. Law enforcement would have to provide sound, legitimate, correct information. When the government used subterfuge and botched a case, and if the result of their incompetence was the illegal incarceration of an innocent person, the government would have to pay restitution, and the government workers would be charged with violating the rights of the individual, and sentenced to jail and massive fines all of which would be paid to the victim of their incompetence.

By changing the system from one in which a person is found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt to one in which a person is found guilty or innocent, then justice could finally be served. Presiding judges should be required to review all the evidence the prosecution intends to presen to determine if there is actually enough evidence to convict someone. If the judges do not believe the evidence is there, then there should be no arrest or trial until there is such evidence.

In order for justice to exist at all, truth must take precedence. Without truth there is no justice, and that is why the criminal injustice system does not work today. It is also why the death penalty is not just, as it is not based in truth, but based in bigotry. It is also why a person can be found not guilty of a crime and found liable for the crime they were found not guilty of. It is also why there are people who are innocent sitting in jail today. It is also why there are people on death row who should have been killed years ago. It is also why there are so few whites on death row, and hardly any women. It is also why there are people who should be on death row who are not, and are freed eventually to kill again.

Yes the death penalty is a bad good idea.