The problems I have with capital punishment have nothing to do with any concern for the suffering of murderers.
In order for me to support capital punishment the process used to determine guilt would have to be almost perfect. I'd say less than one in 10,000 chance that an innocent person could be put to death. I'd bet we're currently wrong more than 1% of the time. That's a bald guess, but I know that mistakes are made, and innocent people are convicted. So for me, I don't support the death penalty because I don't support the possibility of innocent people being killed by our government in my name.
If there was a difference in the safety provided to society by killing vs imprisoning my standard would be much lower.
I also dislike the idea of hiring people to kill a person who has been pacified. It seems like a contradiction to me.
In order for me to support capital punishment the process used to determine guilt would have to be almost perfect. I'd say less than one in 10,000 chance that an innocent person could be put to death. I'd bet we're currently wrong more than 1% of the time. That's a bald guess, but I know that mistakes are made, and innocent people are convicted. So for me, I don't support the death penalty because I don't support the possibility of innocent people being killed by our government in my name.
If there was a difference in the safety provided to society by killing vs imprisoning my standard would be much lower.
I also dislike the idea of hiring people to kill a person who has been pacified. It seems like a contradiction to me.