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Do you support the death penalty? (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world to c/askuk

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Last time I looked a majority of Brits support the death penalty. Which personally I've always found quite disturbing considering all the problems with it.

But 5 mins on any subreddit and you have people frothing at the mouth to hang every criminal.

Which if even more disturbing.

So what do you think?

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[–] GreatAlbatross 3 points 9 months ago

If the state is licensed to execute for crime, then it makes swings in government much more scary.
Say the next election were won by a party that decided to make my sexual orientation completely illegal, with the harshest penalties.
Without capital punishment, I go to prison, and I can hope that a new government reverses course.
With capital punishment, the infrastructure is already in place, and I swing from the gallows with machine-like efficiency.

I guess my point is that some people support the death penalty, without considering that it could be applied to situations they would not agree with it being used for. And that the only way to avoid creeping grey areas is abolition.