Does a killer's life have a value?

Question

Should we be bothered if someone dies and that someone used to kill someone else? If we think that his/her life has no value and he/she deserves to die, does that make us like him/her? Does valuing someone else's life make us a human? But how about death penalty? Doesn't it make us inhumane?

Answer 1

Naturally, much would depend on WHO this person killed, HOW they did it and WHY.

A loving parent who shoots a drug dealer after losing a child from a dose of bad street drugs does NOT belong in the same category as a sociopathic thrill-killer.

The value of a life is best measured by what it accomplishes both for itself AND for others.  The murderous sociopath is accomplishing NOTHING for ANYONE - unbeknownst to most - LEAST OF ALL for him/her self!

Maintaining the life of a Charles Manson or a Geoffrey Daumer is certainly doing SOCIETY no favors, but it is also doing THEM no favor, either.  It is just giving them the chance to rack up MORE bad karma that they will have to resolve and answer-for in future lives.  

And, NO!!!  Thinking like that does NOT make us "like them"!

I recall an episode of the old original "STAR TREK" series that portrayed this idea the best.  Captain Kirk, Spock, Abraham Lincoln (yes, Abraham Lincoln!) and some great Vulcan philosopher that Spock admired, were all kidnapped by aliens and placed on a barren asteroid with an equal number of heinous criminals.  The supervising alien said it was a test to see who was superior - good people or bad people.

Of course, our heroes refused to go along with it, so the alien chief told them he would destroy their ship, complete with all the crew members onboard, if they didn't.  So they got into a long running ambush-and-run-style battle with the bad guys.

Finally, the alien called a halt to it and declared that he couldn't tell anything or see any difference because both sides were doing th same things.

So it ended with Captain Kirk asking the alien how he got the bad guys to go along with it.  The alien replied that he had offered them riches.  Then Kirk pointed out that THAT was the difference he (the alien) was looking for - the bad guys were motivated by greed, but the good guys were motivated by concern for the lives and safety of others.

The object lesson being that good and bad may sometimes have to do similar things, but do so for very different reasons.

It is too bad that so few people have ever seen that episode and so few of those that DID see it really learned the lesson it was designed to impart.

The death penalty when imposed upon the right people for the right reasons is in NO WAY inhumane.  When an animal goes rogue or gets badly hurt or ill, we "put it to sleep" (God! how I HATE that disgusting euphemism!) and we call ourselves "humane" for doing so.  Yet to stop a human murderer from claiming more innocent victims and messing up his/her own eternal karma any further, brings our "humanity" into question?  I DON'T THINK SO!

A life that does nothing but harm to others AND itself?  How much value CAN it have?

Answer 2

You have to be honest.   MOST people's lives have value in some way.  But gnomeworshipper claimed that "even Hitler" did something positive in their lives.  Yeah, that's probably true, but are you telling me that whatever Hitler did that was positive outweighed his negatives?  That's ridiculous.  I wonder how much a better place we could be living in if the likes of Hitler, Saddam, Osama bin Laden, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and others like them were never born.  

Explain to me why I should value the lives of serial and mass murderers?  If a rabid dog were let loose and killed just one person, we would do the humane thing and put the dog to sleep.  These individuals are sick.  I take no joy in killing them, but I also don't feel any remorse.  Getting rid of these killers and murderers makes for a safer society.

Answer 3

It certainly doesn't help society.  Looking at the way the death penalty has actually functioned, I have come to oppose it. When you look at the way the death penalty system actually works, you realize that the only purpose it serves is retribution or revenge.

129 people on death rows have been released with proof that they were wrongfully convicted. DNA, available in less than 10% of all homicides, can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people.

The death penalty doesn't prevent others from committing murder. No reliable study shows the death penalty deters others. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have it than in those that don’t.

Life without parole, on the books in 48 states, also prevents  reoffending. It means what it says, and spending 23 of 24 hours a day locked in a tiny cell is not a picnic. Life without parole costs less than the death penalty.

The death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison, mostly because of the upfront costs of legal process which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people. (upfront=before and during the initial trial)

The death penalty isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. When is the last time a wealthy person was on death row, let alone executed?

The death penalty doesn't necessarily help families of murder victims. Murder victim family members have testified that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative.

Problems with speeding up the process. Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. Speed up the process and we will execute innocent people.

Sources:

Death Penalty Information Center, www.deathpenaltyinfo.org,  for stats on executions, reports on costs, deterrence studies, links to FBI crime stats and links to testimony (at state legislatures) of victims' family members.

FBI   http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/tab...  

The Innocence Project, www.innocenceproject.org

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/COcostte... page 3 and 4 on why the death penalty is so expensive

http://www.njadp.org/forms/signon-surviv... for statements of victims’ families

Answer 4

it's sad such a person's life was ultimately degrading to human kind

Answer 5

I, personally find everyone's life to have value. Because everything happens for a reason, and everyone, murderers, robbers, even Hitler contributed to the world in some positive way.