It amazes me that the number one nation in the world, boasting the greatest inventions, technology and economy this planet has ever seen, still supports something as ridiculous and ineffective as the death penalty. With all the progress humanity has made since bashing women over the head and dragging them back to caves to procreate, why does the population allow killing as if it were a good thing? People cite many reasons as to why the death penalty is good; but have they experienced death in that way and really considered the true effect?

One major reason our nation allows state sanctioned murder is because it is a deterrent to those that would commit crimes warranting their death as punishment. This is an absolutely idiotic statement! America has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Many people are very well educated in this country and it is offensive to say that those who would kill aren’t aware of what could happen. Everyone knows that if you take someone’s life in cold blood (and aren’t rich enough to get a good lawyer) you will be put to death, but that doesn’t stop thousands of murders from taking place each year.

Deterrence is completely illogical, considering that the man with the gun about to shoot his wife and her lover because he caught them in bed is not generally thinking about the philosophical and physical ramifications of his actions. The emotional context of situations where people will kill doesn’t just remove the thought of punishment, it voids it.

There are actually people out there who lack the excuse that they were enraged and emotionally distraught because they planned out the murder they wanted to commit and then executed it (no pun intended).

There are individuals who would say that economically,it makes sense to kill off the killers so that the rest of society does not have to pay for them to get a free ride. This too appears to hold up if we only look at the surface, but what if we dig deeper? The entire process of killing someone takes years, from the day they are caught to their final moment. That process includes police time to catch them, jail time awaiting trial, courtroom time with judge and jury, more jail time, if there is a conviction prison time and then appeal after appeal after appeal.

Finally, years and thousands, if not millions, of dollars later a needle is put in the killers vein with a chemical compound that can cost up to eighty-six bucks.

So, I think it is pretty clear with the most minimal research that death is in no way a cheaper outcome for a killer than life.

What about religion? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I still haven’t found the passage in the Bible where God told somebody, “Kill the bastard.” Even Satan was just cast out. What about “thou shalt not kill?” What about “love thy neighbor?” What about the fact that I am being religiously biased here and there are tons of other belief structures that say that life is sacred and should be considered the most amazingly powerful experience to be had because within it all other corporeal possibility resides and for this reason it should never be prematurely ended?

If you are going to kill people to right their wrongs, do it in a timely and effective manner, that way even though it’s completely arbitrary results could at least be claimed as positive. Also, do it more often for more things, deterrence may not work for those that want to kill but if you knew you were going to be executed for stealing a candy bar, wouldn’t you stop?

Otherwise, get rid of this archaic barbarism that only serves to perpetuate hatred, which this world already has too much of to deal with in a civil manner.

Life is a precious gift that need only be looked at with humanism and compassion to understand what a horrendous crime it is to end. With other options already out there we are only making ourselves criminals for allowing the ignorance of the existing system to continue.