- According to most statistics, 25 percent of those executed are PROVEN
innocent after their death
- Ex-governor of Illinois, Ryan, found that there was "reasonable doubt"
in the case of 85 percent of prisoners on death row. (He gave them
all a pardon before he left the governor's office.) He stated on the Oprah
TV show interview, that his several year long study showed that the
percentage of those executed against whom there was "reasonable doubt" was
the same in most states as it was in Illinois.
- Since murder is a crime of passion, the death penalty is not a good
deterrent against murder. Some 80 percent of murders remain unsolved
because the person only murdered once (Mesa Police Dept statistics)
- Although the Catholic church acknowledges that there is a diversity of
opinion about the death penalty, it states in the Catechism that the death
penalty should be avoided unless no other way is seen to deal with the
criminal. (It is the opinion of most church officials that there is
ALWAYS another way to deal with a criminal)
- An individual who does repeat murders may not value his/her own life
either - death by lethal injection which is quick and painless may not be
a deterrent whereas life in prison MAY be a deterrent.
- The argument that the death penalty saves the tax payer money may be
wasting a human being - there have been many cases of murderers reforming
and living out worthwhile lives. In a compassionate society, money
must never take precedence over human life.
- If the state "solves a problem" by executing a human being, what
message does this give the citizens about how to solve a problem?
The death penalty may actually encourage murder or executions by citizens.
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