Let's lose the death penalty. It isn't worth it. As a matter of fact, we don't have an effective death penalty; we have a nearly-theoretical death penalty, with just 65 executions last year. At this point, the U.S. has the worst of both worlds, a de facto life-imprisonment maximum (in the vast majority of cases) that does not offer the deterence or justice of regularly-imposed capital punishment, combined with a de jurepolicy of capital punishment that only annoys our European allies and hands the liberals another stick to beat us with. It is not worth it.
While I have other, additional concerns, I'm in wholehearted agreement with The Commie. He points out some statistics and an anecdote that illustrate is point which are well worth reading, so be sure and click through to his post.
The bottom line is that the Death Penalty gives society no substantive benefits that aren't grossly outweighed by what society loses through this legal policy.
