How Would You Defend the Death Penalty or Do You Think Its Indefensible? Explain.?

Question by soybeansauce06: How would you defend the death penalty or do you think its indefensible? Explain.?
In his dissent in Gregg v. Georgia, Justice Brennan argues against the death penalty, calling it “official murder.” What is the basis for his conclusion? How would Kant respond to Brennan’s argument?

***I have to write a 3-5 page essay and use my terms and language in “Ethics form” because I did it in my own words and bombed my first essay…. HELP ME OUT!!!!

Best answer:

Answer by wizjp
There are some incredibly evil beings out there who are committing the most horrible crimes imaginable against the weakest and least of us. A just society demands that the only true justice for these acts is a forfeit of their own lives; and nothing less can really be called justice.
Anyone who could rape a child and then bury her alive, crying and dying in a box in the ground, crying for her mother and not understanding any of it to give himself a better chance to get away with it deserves the full penalty of the legal system.

Executed the wrong person? Has not been one case proven in modern judicial history that it has happened. Thus a long and exhausting appeals system. And I don’t say execute everyone. But it has a place in our system.

Answer by T. Dante
People who condone the death penalty always forget one important factor — there is no way to bring a dead person back to life when new facts prove “he/she didn’t do it”. The innocent are never convicted, huh? Well, how many death-row, wrongly convicted people have “pro-bono” lawyers managed to free due to DNA evidence in recent years? Quite a few! Strangely enough, many in Texas!

Another point NEVER mentioned. Many of these sadistic criminals are actually quite literarily insane. Why they are, who can say? Born that way? Driven that way? Is it right to kill insane people simply because their brains have gone ballistic? Hitler thought so. This is a judgment that every society has to make. In the USA, the issue is effectively skirted by almost NEVER allowing an insanity pleas. That is one way to solve the question …. just ignore it.

If the “criminal” is insane, which is better — to kill him/her — or to lock them away for life? It is your call.