Should capital punishment still be allowed in the United States?
Bear in mind that the US is the ONLY nation in the world still practicing capital punishment. My take is somewhat conservative in viewpoints despite the fact that I am a hardcore liberal Democrat. I believe that capital punishment should be used on all inmates incarcerated for life sentences. More money is spent on one prisoner per year than it takes to send a student to Stanford. This would mean a large cut on the cost of housing inmates that are otherwise just taking up unneeded space.
Should juveniles that have committed heinous crimes be convicted as adults?
My viewpoint on this topic is a bit more liberal, however. I believe that juveniles do not yet have the cogitative development to comprehend their actions and therefore should not have to face adult-like consequences.
Any opinions?
First of all, it's not true that the US is the only nation which still practices capital punishment. Capital punishment is currently pracitced in Afghanistan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, China, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tonga, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen. As for your views on capital punishment, I can certainly appreciate an enthusiasm for it and I share a similar view. However, due to the fact that many inmates with life sentences are often either paroled or found to have been wrongfully convicted, I think the "all prisoners serving life sentences" thing should be limited to prisoners serving life sentences without chance of parole who have been incarcerated for at least five years. Now, that's not to say that none of the others deserve the death sentence or that the death sentence should be used exclusively in those cases. That's only if you want to lay down a blanket rule; which, for the record, I do support.
No. Never. It defeats the purpose of having separate convictions for minors versus adults. Even if the minor does have a clear and malicious intent behind their crime, there's no reason to make a mockery of the exact nature of the law by allowing this term to be so flexible and imprecise. This is dumb.
Oops, I meant to say that America is the only developed, high productivity economy nations.
Those with money.
Those without money.