capital punishment

The most severe of all sentences is that of death. Also known as the death penalty, capital punishment is the harshest form of corporal punishment as it requires law enforcement officers to kill the offender. It has been banned in many countries, but still remains legal in the United States. (Blumstein 3) An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, who hasn’t heard of these famous lex talionis? One steals from those who …

…for a life, is a simplistic one which our society has never endorsed. We do not allow torturing the torturer, or raping the rapist. Taking the life of a murderer is a similarly disproportionate punishment, especially in light of the fact that the U.S. executes only a small percentage of those convicted of murder, and these defendants are typically not the worst offenders but merely the ones with the fewest resources to defend themselves.