I could argue both sides of the death penalty issue, from an ethical standpoint. I basically find the whole idea of killing even guilty people to be distasteful, though.
But I am now officially against the death penalty. And here's why.
Bullies like the guy I wrote about in my previous post. Give that guy license to kill. And the power to invent crimes that deserve extreme punishment. Now, I'm not talking about him per se. I am talking about a mentality. A pervasive mentality wherein you can define "person" how you want and "non-person" as someone you can kill if you wanted to. A mentality that finds no problem using bullying to preach against bullying. A bullying mentality to get your way, a mentality in which you identify the enemy and stir up hatred against them, or at least fear of siding with them against you. Now imagine the power to use capital punishment in the hands of bullies like that.
So, with the government in a headlong rush toward that kind of moral relativism, a totalitarianism of "us" over "them," I would have to say that the death penalty should be abolished.
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