Will many people protest if David Conley of Houston, Texas, is sentenced to death if convicted of the cold-blooded murders of eight people on Saturday?
You’ve probably heard about the case, and have been sickened by it.
Reports the New York Daily News: “Conley, 48, is accused of breaking into his former Houston home, handcuffing the eight people inside — including his own son — and then fatally shooting each of them in the head.”
No doubt, some people will protest the death penalty even in his case, saying capital punishment is never acceptable.
But putting him to death — if he is found guilty (I have to qualify it) — might actually put him out of his misery, because surely he will be haunted every day if he is forced to serve a life sentence instead.
And preferring to see him suffer within the confines of the prison system — with no hope of release — may be more sadistic and inhumane than simply giving him a lethal jolt of electricity and sending his spirit on to whatever awaits after it leaves its mortal coil.
What say you?
— Jillian
Jillian Page 
This is a horrible crime.
But the death penalty is never the answer.
Finn
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What I would Like to know is if the incidents are now more pronounced because of instant Media.This has occurred many times throughout civilization yet it appears they are much more frequent! Downhill slide here? Batman Begins?.Resident Evil? Superstitious nonsense? The important question always remains: What if you are the executioner?
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The death penalty is not a deterrent to murder. No more than speed limit signs are a deterrent to speeding. People rarely make a logical, calculated evaluation of risk in life’s events because they don’t think they will be caught.
However, through history there have been people who have died at the gallows of the state (mostly Texas) who were, in fact, innocent of the crime. One is too many, which is why the death penalty must be abolished for all time.
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ALOHA:…. it is absolutely reprehensible that a “civilized” society/country condones cold bloody murder of an individual, no matter what heinous or horrendous “crime” they may have committed. Murdering a prisoner is still murder! They can spend their time in prison in misery, suffering for their crime, whateva. It is NOT the State’s role to kill someone. It is bad enough that “governments” send their young citizens off to kill other people in “wars” to defend the capitalistic/oligarchy/multi-national control of most countries in today’s modern world.
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I must admit that the negative comments about the death penalty surprise me. I DO agree that in most if not all cases spending life in prison is a worse punishment but would ANY of those who object to the death penalty have objected to its being applied to Adolf Hitler?
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YES…. however, the difference here is that it was a WAR; the object is to KILL, KILL, KILL… as many as possible… even innocent non-combatants/civilians, as the u.s. of a. did by dropping the atomic bombs on nagasaki and hiroshima, get killed …. thus, outlaw war!… which is a pipe dream/impossible… so if saddam hussein was caught, or hitler, or whomever, lock them up forever…. we are talking about state sponsored MURDER/KILLING…. war is state sanctioned MURDER/KILLING… of course, then one may get philosophical relating to :defending oneself, et al….. black and white; had he been caught alive, then yes…. do not kill….. the worst scenario as your example connotes is “mass-genocide” killing….. and as my dad said to me during WWII, he never took a prisoner alive; what do you think THAT meant!!!!
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I was referring to the Holocaust not the war. Frankly I’m torn between the greater punishment of the life imprisonment side and the lower cost to society of the death penalty. I -unlike you (seemingly) – have little problem with the death penalty in very bad cases
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I will never ever support capital punishment.
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I have mixed-feelings about capitol-punishment, because in a “civilized” society, we can’t exact in-kind punishment for the gruesome and brutal way in which some murders are committed. Instead, I believe that murderers should be confined for the rest of their lives with minimal comforts, and they should have to work for their keep doing useful and meaningful work. Inmates should never live better in their “cross-bar-Hiltons” than free people on the outside do.
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