Death Penalty for Social Justice

The article, "The Death Penalty- Why the Church Speaks a Countercultural Message", is about changing our attitudes towards the death penalty in accordance with the Church's ideals and beliefs. It poses several strong arguments in support of ending the death penalty and is laid out in a very logical manner.

To me, the diction of the article gave off an undertone of superiority to the reader. By saying that the reader should be open to, and implying that they should, develop a new attitude for the issue if they support the death penalty; the possibility of my support was dramatically reduced. I understand the logic used to justify both sides of the issue, but in my own personal opinion I see no concrete evidence to support the abolition of the death penalty.

One of the largest arguments against the death penalty is the possibility of putting an innocent person to death. If the accused is sentenced with the death penalty they are more often than not put on death row for an extended period of time. During that time the convicted can appeal their case many different times. It speaks volumes to me if they are unable to convince a single jury to change their sentence. There is the chance that they have an absolutely terrible legal team, but a vast majority of capital crimes have murder at their center. Unless the criminal was able to swab every molecule of DNA that they could leave behind, there will be something linking them to their crime. In cases involving DNA identification of the criminal the appeals process becomes entirely useless.

Some Capital Crimes include: wrecking a train with the result of deaths, first degree murder, deaths resulting from aircraft hijacking, murder for hire, and murder during the rape or molestation of a child. I can only speak for myself, but people who murder children after raping them don't really have any chance of rehabilitation in my eyes. Why should they allowed to live their lives in a prison, even under total seclusion from humanity, where they are cared for better than some of the poor people in our country?