Death Penalty Opinion Piece Commentary

The death penalty. What do I think of it? Am I for it or against it? For me, it isn't clear cut. But then, I'm a Libra, and I rarely find anything like this to be clear cut. Libras like me have a hard time. We weigh, we pace, we try to balance, we get frustrated and wad things up and pitch them physically and metaphorically in the general direction of an overflowing trash can. We worry and fret and wonder why we've been railroaded into a position where we have to actually take one side or the other and stick with it, because we can often see both sides of an argument, and to us, they frequently both make some sense. We spend way too much time looking back and forth, and up and down, and in and out, losing hours and hours while we ponder—our heads threatening to explode from the efforts of our deliberations, as we inevitably cry out to the heavens in desperation for the gift of an infallible cosmic 8-Ball to rescue us from our fear of commitment to the "wrong" side of an issue. But I digress.

How do I feel about capital punishment? To kill or not to kill, is there an easy answer? Arguments for and against capital punishment find common roots in issues ranging from civil rights to religion. Is there a point at which the offenses we commit become so grievous that we must allow the life and liberty we enjoy as citizens to be extinguished? When we take away the rights of others permanently, should our own rights be ignored, as well? And where does religion fit into the puzzle? "Thou Shalt Not Kill" is a very large statement that does not appear to deal so much in specificity. After all, it doesn't say, Thou Shalt Not Kill Unless (You Think) the Other Guy Kills First, but we certainly seem to use this type of reasoning when we're waging war on each other—on global and local scales. It doesn't say Thou Shalt Not Kill Only People, But the Furry, Feathered, Scaled and Leafy Things Are Fair Game—and we're certainly involved in substantial carnage within the animal and plant kingdoms. It doesn't say Thou Shalt Not Kill Only Members of One's Own Race, Religion, Gender or Socioeconomic Group, either. So if Thou Shalt Not Kill means don't do it to nothing, nobody, ever, then haven't we already screwed up royally?

I loathe the fact that we have to have a death penalty. I hate that in response to heinous acts of violence, we take it upon ourselves, collectively, to snuff out even more lives—sometimes traumatizing additional innocents (an addition to those already severely traumatized by the aforementioned heinous acts of violence). It's frightening to me that under our current system, it's possible (and documented) that not only are innocent people sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, but that in many instances these errors can go completely undetected (except, of course by those wrongly convicted, and the actual perpetrators of the crimes). I find it ridiculous that in the United States (a country which considers itself—for right or wrong—to be the policing agent of the world), the law enforcement and judicial systems (where justice is supposed to be blind), do not appear to utilize standard operating procedures across social, economic, gender and racial lines. Nevertheless, all that being said, I absolutely believe that in this day and age, the death penalty is unavoidably necessary. But for the most part, I believe from arrest to conviction to sentencing to execution, it's a crap shoot, a gamble, and I have to wonder—who's winning?