A lot of interesting replies.
However, I think that maybe I wasn't as eloquent and informative as I could be. There are several strata so to speak of criminal activites. We try to classify them by names like felony, misdemeaner, etc. Unfortunately, in a thread like this it is hard to to differentiate without creating extremely longwinded posts and detailed explanations. So when I say that I am in favor of the death penalty, I mean that I am in favor of violent criminals being removed permanantly from society for the least cost to the society - that would be a streamlined coporal punishment system that tries, convicts, and allows for one appeal (to reduce those errors) before immediately executing the guilty.
Will there be mistakes? Yes there will, but the only way to actually make no mistakes is to stop trying people all together and that is not acceptable. Of course in this world I envision, the entire justice system would need to be revamped too. Start with the lawyers and the way people are represented in court (another thread)
Someone mentioned the fact that maybe only (only - jeez) 40 % of the convicts are repeat offenders. Most of these criminals don't fall under the capitol punnishment umbrella so they are a concern for the "revamping" of the justice system. What we have now simply does not work to either rehabilitate reliably, nor punnish appropriately IMHO. So the prisons should be brought back to a penal system rather than a rehab system. Does this mean torture? Beatings? No it doesn't. Those that like to point backwards in time to those days when prisons were brutal places of abuse seem to think this what a penal system must be, but that is simply not true, nor is that what I'm advocating. I'm simply advocating a system where the criminal helps to pay for his incarceration through hard labor, thus performing a service to society rather than being a drain. Thus the repeat offenders don't cost us money, nor do they get to train inside to become good enough not to get caught the third time. They work. Hard. I can live with that.
For those that disagree with me, I ask that you come up with your own idea of how to fix the system and what form that system should take. Too often in my discussions about this subject (I work with a rather "liberal" crowd) I find that they only have negatives - no plans, just complaints.
I do not believe that my system will end crime. That is not even my intent. My intent is to punnish those that commit crimes and do it in a cost effective way for those of us that have to pay for it. Plain and simple, I believe that breaking laws must have consequences, but that we shouldn't be the ones to pay for it!
As an aside - the insanity plea. To me this is pretty simple. Assuming they are really insane;are they going to be a threat to self and others for their entire life? If so, then societies security must come first. I believe in therapy and medical help for those that can benefit, but some can't. It's harsh, but a killer is a killer.
