Capital Punishment is Socially and Economically Damaging

Capital punishment Violence Life imprisonment

Capital Punishment is morally wrong and sometimes dangerously mistaken. Imagine you are sitting in the front row of a small room, seated in a chair designed for comfort, looking through the small window and watching as they strap your brother to the metal table. Your mother, beside you, is crying hysterically while your sister attempts to comfort her. You watch with sad eyes, as your brother dies alone on that metal slab. You look away, unable to watch anymore, but instead see the woman behind you smile as your brother is murdered, and you feel sick to your stomach at this madness. Has this new death actually righted a wrong? Capital Punishment is unjust and the US should abolish it.

Most of the population of Earth knows the injustice of Capital Punishment. "The United States is one of the very few industrialized countries in the world which continues to execute criminals. Further, it is one of a handful of countries in the world which executes mentally ill persons, persons with very low IQ, and child murderers (i.e. persons who were under 18 at the time of their crime)." (Robinson, Overview) We pride ourselves on our sophisticated society, but we prove ourselves to be mere barbarians when we execute prisoners.

"Barbarians. That's what we have become. We kill each other and instead of mourning the tragedy, we want the state to satisfy our bloodlust by killing the offender...we must learn to deal with these people in our midst - punish them, but do not become them." Another posting to the same feedback forum [Detroit News], 1999-MAR-2

(Robinson, Quotations)

On a national level, more people are beginning to recognize Capital Punishment as the crude sin that it is. "From 1976, when executions were resumed, until 2003-JAN-1, there have been 820 executions in the US. This includes 66 during 2001 and 71 in 2002. About two out of three executions are conducted in only five states: Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Florida and Oklahoma." (Robinson, Overview) This...
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