I agree death is so painful, my opinion is your argument seems very plausible, Lawyee, but I am not convinced that abolishing capital punishment solves our collective problem. Let’s agree on one thing; we will never answer the question of capital punishment here or in the world as a whole. The concept and acceptance[1] of capital punishment is rooted in centuries of history and religion, and as long as we live, will question the merits or detriments of it’s use. It is a question that has been argued for centuries.

As you might guess from my answer, I am not morally against capital punishment. I am, at the same time not sure if it deters violent crime. Risking sounding flippant, though, it does decrease the number of perpetrators of violent crime.

The US has many alternatives to imprisonment and have had to become creative about punishment in our justice system, too. We have made the changes mainly because of a rampant growth of perpetrators in our country.[2] We have steadily moved away from capital punishment and hard labor as the societies sensibilities have been pricked, but the alternatives to the once harsher penalties have served to increase the prison populations.

I applaud you on your desire to be compassionate. I am not sure that the perpetrators of violent crime used compassion as a factor in killing someone’s brother, sister, mother or father, or raping and killing a child, but that is not to say that we as a society should act as they did.

As a society we like to make up our solutions based many times on scant information. We obviously cannot tell the future to discern if the actions we take today will necessarily create the world we all want tomorrow. I do hope as we adjust our world’s reaction to violent crime and punishment that we do so in a way that does not take away the fear of the punishment. People act responsibly in a society at several ascending levels.

1.the fear of being caught or punished by authorities

2.the social responsibility of being a good citizen

3.the desire for the betterment of mankind
I believe that people who like yourself are against capital punishment are at level 2 or 3. But most perpetrators are at level 1. If they no longer fear punishment, we as a society will fear for our safety.

Maybe capital punishment is not the deterring answer, but I do not see how prisons with every amenity including college education, television, and 3 good meals, is. Maybe prisons in your country are not as nice as ours. J