nambit, regarding the second link you posted:
No execution can be carried out painlessly, and all available methods, electrocution, lethal injection, hanging etc. can make many minutes for the person to die.
Hm, this isn't really a reason against capital punishment. In fact, I kinda like it. Make it nice and painful. Let the fucker suffer his last few minutes.
Execution is an irrevocable act and can be inflicted on the innocent. There have been many established cases of conviction of innocent persons.
True. But is that worse than rotting in prison for 50 years for a crime you didn't commit? That isn't really a good reason against the death penalty. To solve that issue, you need to look at the judicial system.
The poor and members of minority groups suffer disproportionately from the death penalty. Evidence of racial discrimination has been revealed in South Africa and the USA. Statistics from the 1980's show that, in California 42% of blue collar workers charged with first degree murder were sentenced to death, whereas only 5% of white colour workers so charged received a death sentence.
Research conducted by Professor Barend van Niekerk of Natal University in South Africa in the late 1960's suggests strongly that black defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty, especially when the victim is white. He was tried but acquitted in 1970 of a charge of contempt of court for having published the results of his research. During his trial he referred to the fact that, between 1947 and 1966, 288 whites were convicted of rape of blacks and 844 blacks were convicted of rapes of whites. None of the whites were sentenced to death but 844 convictions of blacks resulted in 121 death sentences.
Oh isn't that convenient, I tell you. Quoting statistics from an apartheit government.
The death penalty has never been shown to have a special deterrent effect.
Whoopie shit. Look at the murder rate of Saudi Arabia. Make it public and make it painful.
A United Nations survey, published in 1980, found no conclusive evidence favouring the death penalty.
And in recent news, Palestine blames Israel for more attacks.
Countries that have abolished the death penalty have not experienced a rise in violent crime.
Um, right. Lets take a look at South Africa shall we? Since the death penalty was abolished under the new government, rapes, murder, death, and all that increased exponentially. More than 100 people are murdered per day in the capital. A rape takes place every few minutes. South Africa is the crime capital of the world.
Retribution should play no part in a civilised penal system
And whose opinion is that? Because my opinion says retribution should play a nice part.
"I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundation of a society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true - that savagery begets only savagery." Andrei Sakharov
Wonderful. I though, regard the death penalty as a fast and efficient way of getting rid of all the trash in society.
