5 reasons to abolish the death penalty

1. You can't take it back

The death penalty is irreversible. Absolute judgments may lead to people paying for crimes they did not commit.
Texas man Cameron Todd Willingham, for example, was found innocent after his 2004 execution.

2. It doesn't deter criminals

In fact, evidence startlingly reveals the opposite! Twenty seven years after abolishing the death penalty, Canada saw
a 44 per cent drop in murders across the country. And it wasn't alone.

3. There's no 'humane' way to kill

The 2006 execution of Angel Nieves Diaz, by a so-called 'humane' lethal injection, took 34 minutes and required two
doses. Other methods of execution used around the world include hanging, shooting and beheading. The nature of
these deaths only continues to perpetuate the cycle of violence and does not alleviate the pain already suffered by
the victims family.

4. It makes a public spectacle of an individual's death

Executions are often undertaken in an extremely public manner, with public hangings in Iran or live broadcasts of
lethal injections in the US.

5. The death penalty is disappearing

Out of 198 countries around the world only 21 continue to use capital punishment. And while countries that carried
out executions in 2011 did so at an alarming rate, those employing capital punishment have decreased by more than
a third in the last decade. With this clear downward trend, public pressure may help persuade the world's biggest
executors China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the USA to stop.

Against.

This Isn't About What You Think

Many of those Against the Death Penalty state that it doesn't Deter crime...that is, having the death
penalty in a state doesn't lower the crime rate. I maintain, the Death Penalty isn't about Deterring
Crime...it' is preventing 1 criminal from repeating the Same Crime while saving society the Fear and
Anxiety of wondering if that criminal will ever be paroled. For example, Mason. How much money have
we spent keeping this 1 criminal incarcerated for how long? Can anyone estimate? Each year he's denied
parole. But what if next year some parole panel decides enough is enough, let him go and try to
reintegrate into society. Do you want Manson moving next door to you and your family, your children,
your teenage daughter? If you say that's OK with you, that Manson moves into your apartment complex
next door to YOUR 15-20 year old daughter, then I say, Go for it, give the man Parole. But if you say
"NO", like any Sane human being, then explain to me how not executing him has, in any way, helped our
society. Explain to me how it's helped Him, for that matter. Keeping him alive has neither enriched our
society as a people, nor has it helped the Man himself in anyway. He contributes Nothing to Society. He
gains nothing by continued existence. Is it not cruel and unusual torture to keep a man locked up for
decades with no Hope at all of redemption, parole or salvation? And if you won't let him go, what do you
gain by keeping him alive? If he is dead, he is no longer suffering, and society is relieved of the anxiety
and Fear of him committing the same crime again.