RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I am a strong and dedicated opponent of the death penalty, but that only applies to my own dear Hunnic Lands. If others wish to have it, and they have ruled through their sovereign will, well so be it.

Part of the American experience is that each state is entitled to make its own decisions via the wish of its electorate. To disparage others is moronic. Live and let live, sez I.

I check the web site for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on a regular basis to keep up on who's been executed. what his crime was and what his last words were. It makes me feel good to know there is somewhere in these United States where justice is still practiced and the sanctity of life is still upheld. Like Gary Gilmore once said, I believe liberals are moral cowards. They're also inconsistent. They get off on flushing fetuses down sinks and pulling the plug on Terry Schiavos, but they cringe at the idea of murderers paying for their evil deeds. Well, maybe they're not so inconsistent, because liberals in the 21st century, unlike their forbears 50 years ago, call evil good and good evil.

Not only do they have it. They don't use it with sadness and stoic reserve. They throw a party and brag.
Horay we killed a guy(or girl). Horay aren't we something?

Texas is hardly in the minority here; 39 of 50 states have capital punishment. I fully support Texas having the death penalty as it results in fewer Texans.

Good for Texas! Pity that California didn't have it for Manson. Your tax dollars at work as Court TV gets to do another special freak show when his retarded ass is sent to yet another parole hearing. Just let him take a whif of cyanogen. Howard Stern ran for governor of New York just to get the death penalty back on the books.

Of course, it's a mistake to equate what Texas does with the rest of America. They're sort of a distinct, separate entity (and I don't necessarily mean that in a pejorative sense; they seem to take pride in their separateness). In Texas, they'll execute you for jay-walking. I don't support the death penalty, but I understand why people want it. The people on Death Row aren't misunderstood innocents or Bowery-Boys-gone-wrong; in the majority of cases, they're true monsters. Believe me, I shed no tears when Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy were iced. However, I believe a society that prattles on about the sanctity of life should demonstrate to the rest of the world that those aren't just empty words (which, unfortunately, I believe they are in America and much of the rest of the so-called civilized world). In Texas, many of those on Death Row ended up there after being defended by alcoholic, grossly-incompetent counsel. Justice is blind? Nonsense. I had to laugh when, in discussing the Schiavo case, Bush said we should always err on the side of life. Talk about rank hypocrisy! Still, I do believe society has to be able to exact some sort of price when the crime is cold-blooded, premeditated murder. I do believe life imprisonment should mean life imprisonment. For example, Sirhan Sirhan says he's a changed man. I believe him, but I still think he should never be released. After all, what value does life really have for us as a society if we allow murderers to be released after 7 or 10 or even 30 years?

Texas still has the DEATH penalty because Texas still has people that knowingly and malisciously cause the DEATH of others.

Lots of states still have the death penalty.......................mainly the ones with the highest Baptist populations. I agree with the death penalty, but I would like to see it expand to those WHO CAN AFFORD LAWYERS! I'd like to see somebody get the death penalty for killing a black man! Give 'em life in prison...........unless they killed a white lady. Right? This is a bit off the subject, but I am sick of hearing about every white murder/kidnap/robbery etc victim, while more black people are victims of these crimes than ANYBODY! Do you have any idea how many black kids went missing while that little Mormon girl last year dominated the headlines? - THOUSANDS! How many black women were murdered while we were obsessed with Lacey Peterson? - THOUSANDS! Back to the issue at hand. I would support the death penalty much more if it were not so subjective. If you look at the numbers, white people commit the majority of the perverse murders, while black people commit mainly crimes of passion/ murders that while were for inexcusable reasons, were actually for a REASON! And what is American death row? - 88% black people? I'd like to see them kill some of these F$cked up white people. FYI- I'M WHITE! Anybody ever notice how a lot of white murderers get life without parole for stabbing a woman 56 times and eating her boobs, and a black man gets death for being too nervous during a robbery and pulling the trigger? Actually, the death penalty should just be abolished. It's too impossibly subjective. It can't be fixed.

Hatter, Texas is singled out because they do the most every year by quite a bit. I like the idea.

and your point is? what would you like to be done with some of these murderers? i have a problem with the fact that dna is starting to show some innocent people wrongly convicted but at the same time i dont want my tax dollars paying to house some of these that are guilty for the rest of their lives comfortably when their victims didnt get the option to live or die. maybe we can send them over to you as their punishment. and by the way last time i heard utah still has the death penalty as well as many places around this world. we as americans didnt invent it

Nothing indicates the weblist makers ignorance about American culture more than this. Texas is not the only state that has the death penalty and that's pretty much all that can be said about this. The death penatly debate is for another time and another thread...preferably one that doesn't consist of such immature semantics.

So do about three dozen other states.

If you have issues with capital punishment I wouldn't go casting stones (and why just pick on Texas if you do?). You need look no further than your own neck of the woods - Europe has an extremely bloody past when it comes to this. Chop chop. Just who do you think migrated to the US?

Yeah, you got a problem with that?

Being Catholic, I oppose the death penalty. I also do not feel that the death penalty lessens the occurence of homicides. That being said, I will not speak out against the death penalty either. Thank God I have not had any family members nor good friends murdered in cold blood. My hometown recently had four elderly women beaten to death by a man who was released from prison only six months ago for aggravated assault. What do you think should be done with him? Does he deserve to live through the expense of tax dollars where he will receive three good squares per day, constant medical and dental care, cable television, good recreational facilities? Are you advocating the rights of proven murderers? The Church is against the death penalty, but do not condemn our country nor the state of Texas for considering the victims of these hideous crimes first rather than those who committed them.

As mentioned by other reviewers, Texas is not the only state in the union that has the Death Penalty(Tim McVegah was executed in Colorado), but the reason, I belive, Texas is singled out on this list is probably because Texas is where G.W. Bush is from.

God dang right we still have the Death Penalty here!! We want criminals to know.. you kill someone here, you die too! Funny, I lived in England as a boy. English History shows Ruthless Monarchs that did things that made our system of capital punishment look very tame. Whoever is pointing the finger at us might want to recall that.

It's not Capital Punishment that bothers me-rather the way it is implemented. It seems an inordinate amount of those executed are minorities.As long as someone is beyond a doubt proven guilty of a heinous act,I don't have aproblem with it-however-innocent people have been killed,and until our Justice System improves it's integrity-the death penalty could become a dangerous political tool.

As do many other states, as do a great many other nations in the world. I've seen some comments from the listmaker of late that give considerable evidence of her ignorance about this topic. I don't support the death penalty, and I don't see such support as particularly American

Another positive factor of Texas :)

One, I'd love a definition of Americaniness[sic]??? And secondly, how does the fact that Texas has the death penalty apply to the creature called Americaniness?

What about it?Every state should have it.