I'm always in favor of the "an eye for an eye" thing. Anyone who kills someone should pay with his/her life. However even back in the days when such laws were enforced the gravity of the crime is what would determine what sentence you got. If you'd killed someone but didn't mean to, you'd be exiled. The parallel in today's world would be imprisonment. That's what drunk drivers who kill people should get — a lengthy jail term.
The "eye for an eye" mentality goes back to medieval times. I think we are better then that? The death penalty is usually held for serious premeditated killings. I think vehicular manslaughter where alcohol is involved is a step down from that.
In my opinion, they should never deserve the death penalty. You see when your drunk, you don't know what your doing or where you are. So if you are drink-driving, it would be so hard to keep focus. What I'm trying to say is, they shouldn't deserve the death penalty, they should only deserve a long time in jail. Even if they kill 10 people. When you drink drive, you put lots of lives in danger, that's why I think you should serve a long time in prison.
Death penalty... what a terrible invention. I have always maintained the opinion that keeping someone locked up and removed from all the things that most of us take for granted in our daily lives, is a far greater penalty than killing a person. When it comes to drunk drivers who are involved in accidents, causing injuries and death to others, the real penalty will be the lifelong guilt that the intoxicated driver will feel for the rest of her/his life. -That's if s/he has a conscience... and most of us do.
I think the death penalty might be a little bit much, just because they don't do it with the INTENTION of hurting people. Yeah, the likelihood of hurting someone might be high enough to argue that that it is implied, but it feels different than say shooting someone. They are generally just trying to get home, and although it's horribly dangerous and irresponsible, their intentions aren't bad enough to warrant the death penalty I would say. I would doubt that this will be written into law any time soon either because I'm sure most people agree with me on this.
I don't believe in the death penalty. It's not a religious thing or something like that (I don't even have a religion). I just don't see the point in killing someone. Like, that's not gonna bring the dead person back. I've watched a few documentaries about people on death row. There was a dude that died on death row and the family of the victim watched him die. They said that they felt even worse about the killer getting killed then their own family member. Weird.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." There are many other ways to deal with such issues. NYC started impounding cars and arresting people years ago to attempt to put a halt to this kind of behavior. Some small towns have something called safe rider. It's free and will take people from bar to bar. Make sure they get home ok. A community can organize something like this and get funds together. I think the best way is to look for alternatives to prevent this. No, an alcoholic might not be able to understand that it is not a good idea to drink and drive. Even just an occasional drinker might not realize what could happen and be careless. Society makes it easy for these things to happen and unless people take precautions. Even if that means thinking for people who can't think straight. WE know that rationality is lost in this game, so take it up and make it safer.
Death penalty itself is such a controversial topic. Just by saying that a drunk driver who's killed a person in an accident, is just too simplistic. Even if such a conclusion is drawn, I think it should be drawn with discussion. Yes, they've done great harm; but sometimes pain shouldn't be met with pain.
It's hard for me to be in favor of the death penalty for drunk drivers. I mean, unlike murder or rape, there is no intent on their part. It is hard for me to equate some moron who decided to drink and drive to an evil man who killed someone intentionally. Drinking and driving should never be tolerated but let's not get too extreme.
Drinking and driving is really a crime. But I cannot really equate it as bad as rape or intentional murder. Though drunk drivers intended to drink alcoholic beverages, they do not really intend to kill a person IF they happen to be involved in an accident. For the most part, I think jail is enough for them and the part where their conscience will bother them forever for killing someone because they are under the influence of alcohol. I can understand though how the families of people who had lost loved ones because of drunk driving.
I always have the belief that if a drunk driver kills someone when driving, then they should at least be charged with involuntary manslaughter. After all, it was their decision to take a drive while impaired. As for death penalty, well it depends on the severity of damages of those afflicted.
I don't believe they should get the death penalty. My father became an alcoholic when my mother left him because of his verbal abuse. He changed. Not only when he was drunk but even when he wasn't. He was a different person. What some people seem to forget is that alcoholism is a disease. It happens. They need help, not death.
No, I don't think that drunk drivers should receive the death penalty. However, they should receive a harsh sentence, especially if they took someones life. The punishment should depend on the severity of the accident caused.
I also do not think that death penalty would be the appropriate punishment. That said, I do not think that death penalty is the appropriate punishment for any crime. However, I agree that drunk driving should be treated as seriously as attempted murder.
Oh, of course such actions are very immature, but hell no death penalty. I think that worse criminals deserve that for killing a lot of individuals with cold blood, not while being unconsciousness like drunk drivers.
Punishing or being sadistic towards people who make mistakes is not going to work. I say no. Considering the garbage that is in alcohol like chemicals. Synthetic chemical toxic waste that influences behavior. People make mistakes it is called being human. Perhaps if the world had some perfect people in it this might be an option to kill someone just because they got behind the wheel drunk and killed someone. I'm not condoning or saying its right or that something shouldn't be done. Reform is the answer. If an liquor company can put garbage in to make people addicted to their product and cause cancer. Who is it that actually should be in jail or given a death penalty? Who is really the unknowing innocent here? Erratic and compulsive behavior doesn't just come out of the sky. FDA, or the federal government might be who we want to look at my friends. The federal government regulates alcohol. They allow the crap that is put in the bottles that the american public drink. You still want to put the driver on death row? They allow carcinogens that cause, and they know it, cancer, that will lead to death. They allow this to be put into beer and liquor.
Not to say I'm defending alcoholics, but the thing you don't realize is that when peolpe drink alcohol is that no matter how old they are, depending on how nuch alcohol they consume it will continue to lower the coginitive thinking, reaction times and fear responces. So they shouldn't get death penalty but instead loses they're liscene for atleast 2-5 years and be notified by every bar of who he is and only limit him to one cup of alcohol ever every week, if not less than that (plus lose the ability to purchase alcohol from any stores)...
No, I don't believe drunk drivers should get the death penalty. But I think they they should have severe consequences. I am very against drunk drivers. I believe you get caught once, there goes your right to drive for a very long time.
This is a touchy subject, but drunk driving is very dangerous. I had a family friend die a long time ago by the hands of a drunk driver. I do think there should be harsh penalties for people who kill someone when driving drunk. But we live in America I don't think we should change our laws to be this extreme, people are still fighting for civil rights here we don't want to follow after other countries. In some countries you would get the death penalty for killing someone in a accident like that.
I don't think they should get the death penalty for just driving drunk. Now if they drive drunk and kill someone, death penalty should be the only punishment! Penalties for being caught driving drunk need to get much tougher though, like a ten year license suspension and a few years in prison for the FIRST offense.