My countrypeople are insane.
Pollingreport has results on opinions about the death penalty which prove this.
First, in different polls, about the same fraction of people (sadly around 30%) say they are opposed to the death penalty and say they are opposed to the death penalty for murder (get that not first degree murder just murder). To be opposed to the death penalty (as I am) means to be opposed to the death penalty for any crime including the rape torture and killing of someone one kidnapped (as I am). It is crazy that there are essentially no Americans who support the death penalty for such a horrible crime but oppose it for second degree murder.
Fortunately a similarly small fraction want to increase the number of executions. Do people have any idea how many people we would kill if we imposed the death penalty for plain ordinary murders ?
I think what's more interesting is that although 63% believe in the death penalty, only 42% think it has a deterring effect. That means, under some mild assumptions, that about 20% support the death penalty as a means of revenge. That's scary, especially since most of them also acknowledge that sometimes innocent people are executed. In other words, revenge is more important than life itself.
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