Death Penalty Abolition Act

[Fritz]

I support the abolition of the death penalty, under any and all circumstances.

It has been argued in this thread that we must pay for keeping prisoners alive.  The truth is that the appeals process for death row inmates is much costlier to society in dollar terms.

The death penalty has not proven to be an effective deterrent to crime.  Murder and other heinous crimes are not committed less frequently in states that have death penalty as in states that do not.

If it does not deter crime, its only purpose is punishment.  It fails in that end as well.  Criminal terrorists the likes of Tim McVeigh are only too happy to die for their crimes.  Life in prison is a terrible punishment, and many would prefer death.  Which punishment is worse is purely a matter of personal opinion.

But my primary reason for opposing the death penalty is that it has been and does get administered to innocent people on occasion, and there is no way to commute this sentence if DNA evidence clears a convict after he has been executed.

The death penalty is a barbaric practice which modern society should abolish.