European envoys call on Japan to abolish death penalty

I don't want to see Aum sarin murderers walking around in the town after they are released.

Why don't these people start by convincing China? It leads to world in this category. Japan doesn't even make it into the top ten.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/death-penalty-countries-world#data

How can a funky butt EU tell Japan what to do, worry about Russia controlling your heating oil.

Extensive studies done in different countries and regions of the world have found no proof that the death penalty has a direct correlation with reducing serious crime

In Japan it actually encourages serious crime. Nearly all of the criminals on death row in Japan have stated they committed their crimes to get the death penalty. This proves the above research. The death penalty is not a deterrent.

Why would any proud and free people give a bunch of pols, bureaucrats and assorted government flunkies the god-like power of life and death to rule over them, killing the monkey to scare the chickens, as Chinese autocrats so succinctly phrase it? The state-administered death penalty is so yesterday's stale serving of revenge that diminishes our humanity.

I like how many commenters’ first response is to say, basically, “But what about THEM, they’re worse!” And kill the messenger. Not address the topic. One or two comments addressing the death penalty.

Personally, I think one innocent person is one too many; life in prison will keep the evil guilty ones off the streets but allow the innocent convicted ones time to appeal.

The death penalty hasn’t proven effective against crime for over 300 years when pickpockets plied their trade while a pickpocket was being hung for pickpocketing. The only crime the death penalty reduces is the crime by that one individual who is put to death. And revenge, but that’s not the same as justice.

Murder is murder; be it committed by the state or by the perp. It's barbaric, old testament eye for an eye dreck that belongs in the dustbin of history.

European envoys call on Japan to abolish death penalty

Well, if they were really serious about that, why didn't they install it as a condition for a free trade agreement when negociating with Japan??

Agree with borsch and Toasted Heretic. Japan wants to be classified as a first world country, then it should behave like one.

I agree that the death penalty is not good for the mentality of a nation

I agree with Ossan but i think they are going in reverse. I assume if they get all the little countries then they can use that as leverage against the harf targets like china, russia and the us to aboloish the death penalty.

Jimizo - its not an obsession, the chinese want to be like the us so like the us everyone is going to look at them hard. So of course we see the the organ harvesting, the ethnic cleansing of uighers and tibetans, the increase of military, the belicose actions the chinese do. Its all part of being a big dog, the us goes through this just the same except is liked more than the chinese.

Logical thinking to apply: purpose to reduce number of innocent people dying.

One must not forget that death penalty to :

allow certainty to impede additional crime by perpetrator

stop torture to an imprisoned person who knows it is for life.

reduce cost of imprisonment. That money can save lives.

I am not for or against death penalty. I want people to decide democratically knowing all the entailments.

@Jonathan

You’re right, of course. But I’m happy to count myself among those people who aren’t simply cold, logical machines.

I’m against the death penalty because it’s horrible. And no logical arguments are going to persuade me otherwise....

Nearly all of the criminals on death row in Japan have stated they committed their crimes to get the death penalty.

A person who murders someone then tries to commit suicide but fails or someone that immediately turns themself in after the crime, probably won't hesitate to accept the death penalty.

A person who commits murder and runs from police or goes into hiding, probably wants to keep living.

I don't know about the "nearly all" sentiment unless you have transcripts from your death row tour that you would like to share with the JT family.

European envoys call on Japan to abolish death penalty

If the Japanese are smart they wouldn't listen to the Europeans just have a look at the crime rate since the European's and their "open minded" open door policies.

I’m for the death penalty, theoretically. I think people who deliberately take the life of another human being without state sanction forfeit the right to their own life. It’s a social contract and part of being a member of society.

And as long as “life in prison” doesn’t mean what it’s supposed to mean, I think the death penalty is the only other option.

In reality, I realize that truly cut and dry cases where the evidence of guilt is overwhelming are few and far between, and am therefore reluctant to agree with its widespread use.

I don’t buy those holier-than-thou arguments that state civilized societies don’t kill their own members in the name of justice. There are too many slippery slope arguments where the benefits of being a killer far outweigh the damage that they do, and rights they violate. Anyone who can justify, for example, Anderson Brevik being given the same rights as, say, a person who does not gratuitously take away the lives of 77 innocent people, is living in a dreamland, in denial of reality.

What did the Viet Cong say? Better to kill the innocent than than to allow ONE guilty to escape “.