Do you support capital punishment in the military and civilian courts?

I support capital punishment in both military and civilian courts but with a few assumptions and caveats.
- Reasons for penalties in military courts include: punishment, deterrence, rehabilitation, and good order/discipline.
- Reasons for penalties in civilian courts include: punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation.
- Capital punishment obviously precludes rehabilitation so therefore left with punishment and deterrence (plus good order/discipline in a military court).
- In order to achieve the effects of punishment and deterrence, capital punishment should be:
o Speedy. Execution 20 years later is not useful. Execution should be within 4 years of conviction maximum. This means expedited processing and limited (rather than endless) appeals.
o Consistent. Administration of the punishment should not vary within a jurisdiction. Each conviction/sentence should meet standard criteria of application.
o Limited. Capital punishment should be reserved for the worst crimes only.
o Due Process. Conviction should be to the highest standard. This means that the very best defense attornies should be resourced and allocated. This can not and should not be left to the fiscal resources of the defendant.
At endstate, the execution of a person later determined to be innocent would do more to undermine the application of the death penalty than 10 guilty people sentenced to life imprisonment.

I'm opposed to capital punishment on moral, practical, and constitutional grounds.

I am 100% behind capital punishment, like SSG Pete Fleming said, after you are convicted and appeal, just do it. There is no reason to keep someone for 10+ years on death row. I also think that we can change the way that it is carried out, but that is another topic for another day. Why is it that someone who kills someone else, is allowed to live long after the person whose life they took?

Yes. Desertion in the face of the enemy comes to mind. Multiple rape, serial murder, there are several crimes in and out of the military that I feel are deserving of the harshest punishment.

I support capital punishment for military and civilians. I feel that there is no deterrent in just going to jail. All an offender has to do is plead insanity, and they get off scot-free. Also if someone gets sentenced to consecutive life sentences, without parole. That may be the dumbest thing I've heard of. If they are so bad that there is no possibility of them ever getting out of prison, why use our tax dollars to keep them alive, give them education and everything else they need?

Absolutely
Take the time to make sure it is not a mistake....
but put a 3-year time limit on that as well
(no need to wait 25 years to execute them in other words)

The $$$ wasted on someone that will not ever be rehabilitated, or deserves no "Second Chance"
...imagine what we could do with all that Federal and State money...

Nobody does something this bad without realizing what the consequences are going to be

"When you go to kill someone, you dig TWO Graves...."

“It will take six months or more for the colonial secretary to deal with the matter and months more before we learn of his decision. But you will not be interested in what he decides, for you are to be hanged Monday morning.” - Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie (9 May 1819 – 11 June 1894)

I used to believe a lot more strongly about having it than I do now. The quickest sentence carried out in recent history was Timothy McVeigh - only 4 years. If they were all carried out this quickly, actually saving some taxpayer money, instead of decades in some cases while appeals keep happening, then it would mean more. IMHO a death sentence should only be handed down if there is an abundance of hard evidence and/or the individual confesses.

Lately though I've been of the opinion that death is an easy out for these people. I like the "Escape From New York" type of punishment - banished from the real world and into some unholy living hell. If that doesn't work and we can discover the Phantom Zone, I'm good with that too.

Personally I am against Capital Punishment. It has never proven any real deterrent just a piss poor form of Revenge. If we are going to discuss it between the Military and Civilian difference, I once again commend the Military Justice Systems which actually makes Capital Punishment Less Likely with it's Fairness Doctrine.

When examining the death penalty, it’s important that we understand exactly what’s happening. The purpose of the Justice system is just that, Justice; not justice for the victim or the accused but Justice. The cause of death of a condemned man is listed as ‘homicide by the state’ and that’s precisely what capital punishment is; the government, at either the state or Federal level, deliberately conspiring to take a human life in the name of all of its citizens. So the question is this; are there crimes that are such that Justice demands the criminal be put to death?

I would argue that there are several crimes that fit this criterion. Crimes against the state; treason, espionage, sedition etc. have been capital crimes for almost all of human history and should be. Crimes against military order and discipline would qualify as well; experience has shown them to be needed and proper. The more common types of crimes in which I believe the death penalty should apply would include murder, the deliberate, unlawful taking of a human life. I would argue that attempted murder should be as well; I don’t believe a person who intended to take a human life should be mollycoddled on the basis of having failed. Violent rape and child molestation should be as well.

An additional function of the death penalty should also be to deter potential criminals however this has been lost. It takes an average of 25 years for a condemned man to actually be executed. This is an entire generation; by the time the execution is finally carried out, only the family of the victim and condemned care and that deterrence is lost. Frankly, there ought to be a special court established specifically to deal with capital crimes appeals and they should be streamlined so as to speed up the process.

Frankly, I don't understand how we can't get this right. A few months ago, I had to have a beloved pet cat put to sleep. From start to finish, the procedure lasted about 20 seconds and she was purring in my lap until they gave her the sedative. While I realize that a cat is much smaller than a human, I find it difficult to believe we have a greater understanding of cat physiology than of human. I'd recommend that we simply apply an heroic overdose of heroin; we already have it in police evidence lockers so no issue of supply or cost and it's damned effective.