The death penalty has always been a bit of a controversy, now more than ever. Capitol punishment rates have been dropping steadily over the years, yet there still appear to be some staunch supporters of the death penalty. One only has to look at the Republican presidential debate of September 2011, when "the audience erupted into applause when moderator Brian Williams noted Texas had executed 234 people in recent years" (NPR). All of this discussing other people's fates as if they were already dead is frankly making me a little queasy, so I think we all, as Americans, need to come together and have an educated discussion on whether or not the death penalty is moral or even worthy of merit. Only then do I believe that we would decide whether or not it should truly be our call if a person should die for his crimes.
I think most of us, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, or even Atheistic, can agree that all human life has value. The question then becomes how much is a life worth? Is it worth killing something for a crime they committed if there is a chance of redemption? Are criminals "worthy" of the death penalty even worthy of redemption? If all else fails and you still have an un-slakeable bloodlust that will not slumber until the person in question has paid for his/her crimes in your mind, isn't it a far worse punishment to be sentenced to "natural life in prison, without any chance of parole," (NPR) being forced to live their lives in agony over the crimes they've committed? (a tad morbid, I know and I apologize). The answers to these questions are "Priceless, no, no, and NO!" Every life holds value because it is a scientific miracle that it exists at all, even if it has been adverse to society, and it should not be ended. Everybody is worthy of redemption and to those who would see a life end because they deem it necessary, I say this: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" (Gandhi) we must be better than the killers.
