Should life imprisonment without parole be abolished?

[TDAS04]

The death penalty should never be an option.  Life imprisonment without parole should be, but only for the most heinous crimes, and should never be applied to juveniles.

[TDAS04]

i'd like to draw a small but important distinction: are we talking about "life imprisonment without parole" or "life imprisonment without the possibility of parole"?

The question involves life imprisonment without parole.

Anyway, to respond to a couple of the above posts, what would you do if you could determine the fate of Hitler, Stalin, or Mao?  Life without parole should only be available to the worst of the worst, but those people exist.

To the point that someone can't be anti-death penalty and pro-life imprisonment, yes, being locked up for life is harsh (which is why I don't understand the strong conservative support for the death penalty), but one key difference is that death carries finality.  If the convicted is later proven innocent, it's too late.  I support life imprisonment in certain cases on the condition that it can still be overturned upon finding evidence for innocence, and at least the prisoner has the rest of his/her natural life for this.  Also, life is less harsh on the convicted's family than death is.

I don't think long prison terms should be handed out as lightly as they are in the US, and prisons should be fairly humane, but the worst of the worst people should locked up for good.  They may not even deserve to live, but life and death is where I don't think the state should be allowed to determine someone's fate.  

Yes, but keep the death penalty and use it more instead.

That'll be great.  More incentive to hand out the death penalty, and more executions of innocent people.

[TDAS04]

Yes, but keep the death penalty and use it more instead.

That'll be great.  More incentive to hand out the death penalty, and more executions of innocent people.

If someone is innocent, they're far more likely to get acquitted if they are sentenced to death than with a life-without-parole sentence, given the large public media attention and appeal opportunities in capital cases.  LWOP is basically a death sentence, anyway. 

Fair point.  I would allow more appeal opportunities in long prison sentences than they currently allow.

[TDAS04]

I never got the "the state shouldn't have the power to kill people" argument against the death penalty. In that case, we shouldn't have a military either, and cops shouldn't be allowed to carry guns.

There is a difference between defense and killing someone in your custody.

Yes. Everybody, even the worst criminal, deserves a chance to redeem themselves.

Even those who commit mass murder or genocide?  Some people are bad enough that releasing them after a few decades doesn't seem right.  Maybe if people lived for eternity, you'd have a point.