Does the DEATH PENALTY achieve JUSTICE?

Capital punishment was abolished in Hungary more than 30 years ago, but public polling suggests many Hungarians believe it should be reinstated in some or all homicide cases.

Peter Boghossian had a one-on-one spectrum conversation with a Hungarian woman about the claim, “Hungary should reinstate the death penalty.” The woman agreed with the claim, citing the death penalty as a possible deterrent to crime. She says murderers are frequently released from prison before serving their full sentences, and she believes families of murder victims would receive justice if the death penalty were reinstated.

While the woman seems confident in her beliefs, she considers adjusting her stance based on variables Peter presents. “I will be thinking about this for a long time now,” she states at the end, which is an objective of every Street Epistemology conversation.

This video is part of the “Reverse Q&A: Hungary & Romania” series. New conversations are available Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 1:00 pm PT. Click SUBSCRIBE to be notified when new videos are posted.

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Alternative titles:
Should the US abolish the death penalty?
Is the death penalty moral?
Should capital punishment be allowed?

#peterboghossian #deathpenalty #capitalpunishment

[drpeterboghossian]

Do you agree with capital punishment? Why or why not?

[VaughanMcCue]

Your guest was a sensible lady who was prepared to reconsider her position.
Watching this made me think of something I read from Jordan Peterson on his Monday of Meaning broadcast.

"You need to think so that your ideas can die instead of you.
That is the utility of thinking. And you need to know how to
write because writing is thinking, and it stops you from falling into a pit."

[aimercab]

Good, thoughtful questions are the way to bridge any gap.
Well done!

[DJD]

This is what we need, let´s talk like this from now

[goldenvulture]

Conviction sentences of "life in prison with the possibility of parole" & "life in prison without the possibility of parole" are forms of capital punishment

[tyleryoast]

I'm against capital punishment in all cases. Furthermore, I also believe that retribution and other forms of cultivating ill will increase our suffering in the long term. The sole purpose of the justice system should be restorative. From the research i've done (which admittedly isn't very much) on the whole victims of crimes have higher satisfaction rates with restorative processes compared to punitive measures.

[UltraSaltyDomer]

DP is a justified justice when the crime is horrible enough that only DP could make it eye for a eye.

[polamalu]

I agree an eye for an eye, but putting a wrongly accused person to death sways me to the side of being anti-death penalty.

[goldenvulture]

There are two reasons why people are against capital punishment: 1. Believe its immoral; 2. Depending on the form it is carried out in

[MoralGovernment]

Her primary reason is deterent, and she takes the possibility of false convictions into consideration. Not the other way around.

[elias]

As an example, in Sharia Law the goal of Death Penalty isn't necessarily considered as a punishment, it is there for prevention. If someone is not mentally ill, they would think twice of their
choices knowing the severity of the repercussions.

[dilloneliassen]

What if it was proven that being involved in the administration of the death penalty (guards, wardens, medical staff) suffered mental and/or emotional illness or committed violence, would that change your support for the death penalty?

[martinwinter]

complete isolation instead of the death penalty. If a person violates the ground principle of physical integrity or our society then the person should no longer have rights from what the society is giving = no internet, no tv, no books, no newspaper, no mail no visits, bland food and water, and isolation.

[lonewaer]

The question about repentance is good, but is rather confusing to me after the scenario about life in prison being "without the possibility of parole". Don't we need to have that light at the end of the hallway, to give a positive incentive for convicts to change ? Is the supposition there that we are expecting a killer, who by definition ignored social conventions/rules, to just change on their own, without any incentive, due to what, excessive guilt ? Prolonged introspection ? That person is there precisely because there was no incentive strong enough to prevent them from doing what they did, why would they change without incentive ? I'm not saying it's never going to happen, but it's probably more idealistic than wanting a perfect justice system that doesn't condemn innocent people.

Life in prison without parole, to me, is basically saying : "ok, so we don't want to kill you because we're humane, we don't want to torture you, because that's worse than killing you, there's no hope for you to get out, no incentive to behave better, no incentive to want to change your ways, and we can't get you do to anything work related because that would be forced labor and also we have really no leverage to get you to comply to anything. Even isolation will eventually result in psychological damage/torture so we would also prefer to not ever have to use that ; but we will if we have to because we are hypocrites."

Unless I am missing something about parole, life in prison without parole is strictly worse than the death penalty, isn't it ? And if life in prison were to eventually result in spiritual redemption, what's the point in waiting, really ? Why not just kill that person and claim we saved them because they're eventually going to repent ? And what if they don't repent ? What have we achieved ? That person still becomes a leech for the rest of their life, still dies in prison… I'm not sure what the point is… is it so that the system doesn't feel the guilt of having directly provoked the death of someone ? The _system_ ? Now I'm aware that it still requires individuals to make it function, but we're already circumventing that.

To me life in prison without parole is actually a reason why the death penalty _is_ desirable. The possibility of parole _is_ the path to redemption, this has to be kept. It doesn't mean that the parole will be granted, it would still need strict conditions to be fulfilled, but if there's zero possibility for it then there's nothing. We'd just be left with a leech of a killer.
The potential, or rather, eventual, convictions of innocents is the only reason the death penalty is undesirable.

[dom]

I used to be pro-capital punishment, now I am vehemently against it. I don't think the government should be able to decide who lives and who dies. Also, the show "I Am A Killer" on Netflix changed my mind. A lot of people serving life sentences tried to get on death row (especially if they were older) because those inmates were treated better. I believe it's a worse punishment to sit with the psychological torture of life in prison. Death is a way out.

[alin-ionutborcan]

I can't wait to see what i missed

[onslogabaake]

Explain me this, If the individual gets life in prison, then there housing and food is predominantly paid by taxpayer, thus if the impacted family pay taxes they are supporting the life of someone who took their loved one, who is dead.
There is need for a more rigorous system to weed out those that might be innocent but not abolish capital punishment.

[gindrinkersline]

Reinstating capital punishment in Hungary would violate the European Convention on Human Rights. It would lead to Hungary getting kicked out of the Council of Europe as well as the European Union. Only European nations not part of the Council of Europe: Belarus & Russia.

[UltraSaltyDomer]

One thing he missed about what she said is the sense of Justice the family gets by the person being executed. Also while on death row the prisoner has the same opportunity to repent as if they were in for life. Also we have seen countries change over decades and if someone lives long enough it would be possible the law changes that allows them to get out of prison. DP is a necessary evil because it shows a society that thinks about the victim first over the criminal. That mind set has a trickle down effect on all crime that happens in the society. You can not have a thriving society without law and order.

[nevrcm]

answer = yes

the actual victim MUST remain at the forefront of a guilty verdict with a death penalty decision. An innocent life was taken with intent that must be the line