Ten Reasons to Say "NO" to Capital Punishment

1. Innocent people get sacrificed in the process. In law schools everywhere, students read the famous quotation from the 12th century legal scholar, Maimonides, "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death." At least 39 innocent people have been put to death wrongfully in the United States since 1992 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment).
2. Unconstitutional. The 8th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States states that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." From 1972 to 1976, capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, citing that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.” I am not sure how death cannot be a cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court has twisted the justice by calling death not cruel as long as it is painless. The judges have ignored the psychological, and spiritual cruelty associated with the death penalty altogether. I do not believe death by lethal injection is physically painless either. In fact evidences exist that on occasions the lethal injection has not worked properly thereby subjecting the receiver to extreme pain. Moreover, death as a punishment is certainly “unusual” by any measure.
3. Does not deter homicides. Examining the number of homicide rates (number of homicides/100,000 people) since 1950 through 1996 indicates that the capital punishment may not have any bearing on the homicide rate.
4. Unacceptable by many faiths. Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, and Christian scriptures do not allow death penalty. Some famous quotes are: “Thou shalt not kill”, one of the Ten Commandments; “Thou shalt not judge!” the Bible; the necessity of “Ahimsa” or nonviolence in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism; etc. Mahatma Gandhi had said “An eye for eye will leave the whole world blind.”
5. Neither gets rid of nor transforms the evil. According to the karmic law and doctrine of reincarnation, the person will begin where he or she left off before death. The person is not going to be any better when the person is reborn. Death penalty may falsely appear as a temporary fix. The evil will be back when he or she is reborn.
6. It makes us a murderous nation. It is a shame that we call ourselves a world leader and still have the lowly capital punishment. Let us follow other less developed nation’s example on compassion and human progressiveness.
7. A cruel punishment to the family. The person subject to death penalty also may have a family, a mother, children, etc. By putting the person to death, we are subjecting the family to a “cruel and unusual” punishment.
8. The perpetrator does not get an opportunity to transform him/her.
9. There is an alternative. Life in prison without parole and subjecting the perpetrator to an extremely spartan (no luxury please!) condition may allow the perpetrator to time and an environment to contemplate what he or she did.
10. Costs tax payer more money. You can check this out.