Смертная казнь — это один из наиболее древних видов наказания. Изначально она возникла в ходе реализации принципа талиона: «око за око, зуб за зуб». Согласно данному принципу, справедливым наказанием за причинение смерти другому человеку являлась смертная казнь. Кроме того, свою роль сыграл и существовавший во многих обществах обычай кровной мести, который была призвана заменить смертная казнь, осуществляемая от лица государства[1].

Несмотря на то, что в дальнейшем для большинства деяний принцип талиона был заменён выплатой денежного штрафа в пользу потерпевшего, смертная казнь сохранялась в большинстве государств.

1) Not to have the death penalty and the genuine problems it causes and continue to accept the relatively high levels of murder and other serious crimes that we presently have.

2) Reintroduce capital punishment for just the "worst" murderers which would at least be some retribution for the terrible crimes they have committed and would permanently incapacitate them. It would also save a small amount of money each year which could, perhaps, be spent on the more genuinely needy. This option is unlikely to reduce overall crime levels.

3) Reintroduce the death penalty in the really strict format outlined above and see a corresponding drop in serious crime whilst accepting that there will be a lot of human misery caused to the innocent families of criminals and that there will be the occasional, if inevitable, mistakes.

I do not support State Sanctioned Murder! I find it to be out of revenge that Capital Punishment is administered. Do we really want to sink as low as those who committed the crime in the first place? That is what we are doing just feel better about it because we are not throwing the switch ourselves, but we are accessories to murder. Would it not be better to take the high road and not stoop to the level of murderers ourselves. The Death Penalty does not deter violent crimes or murders. The murder rate is still pretty high in this country and most crimes in which the Death penalty in used are crimes of passion in which they happened without forthought and within seconds.

Also just in Texas alone last year 20 people were exonerated who sat on death Row. DNA cleared them. makes you wonder how many people were killed who did not do the crime they were found guilty of and killed for. One innocent person being killed for a crime they did not commit is wrong and cannot be tolerated. Capital punishment is not an exact science and probably never will be. Therefor it is not a proper form of punishment as long as it is not perfect!

By allowing the government to kill criminals it proves that the government and the rest of society can stoop to the same low level as the criminals themselves. It proves that we are not better than them, that we are shallow and frivolously vengeful.

The Death Penalty should be abolished. If the wrong person is executed, he cannot be brought back.