It is inscribed in our countries past and present that an eye for an eye is just. Capital punishment has been employed by countries, empires and kingdoms for centuries. The logic is simple, but almost too simple, and cannot be used anymore because it does not account for the reasoning behind the crime and how the person being punished came to do what they did.

People who are convicted to death row cannot escape their conviction. The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty calculated that one in ten of the men and women on death row are innocent. That means that about 10% of the people that have been on death row that have been executed could have been exonerated, but instead were disgustingly sentenced to premature man-caused death.

Another huge problem is that the death penalty gives the US and the citizens a bad name and causes aggression. Our allies are watching us and are disappointed. This causes terrible relations in trade and social aspects, but more importantly, our enemies are watching us just as much. The death penalty and the trials of people like the masterminds of 9/11 in Guantanamo Bay gives reason for terrorists and people who want to do damage to do damage. This has happened in the past, for example, the execution of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, a terrorist convicted of an attack in Bali, caused mass uprisings in Al Qaeda and more attacks in the US.

The death penalty is also largely inefficient in its purpose. The point of punishment in a law system is to correct and prevent actions of people who have done wrong. The death penalty does not accomplish this. There has been one study showing that the death penalty prevents future crime, but the study was later reported as falsified and blatantly wrong.

Now there has been countless studies done by the New York Times and NCCP that show that a counter for the death penalty and violent offenses is rehabilitation. Prisons make small time offenders hardened criminals, and the death penalty only creates more social depression and hampers our ability to make a society safe, but rehabilitation puts hardened and small time offenders back on the street as good citizens. Rehabilitation can come in many forms, such as job experience, college tuition and counseling. Right-wing conservatives will have you believe that if free care isn’t provided to normal citizens, then it should not be provided to criminals. They are the ones who need it the most. If we do not give them training and experience, they will come right out of prison and result to the only thing they can do, crime.