Capital Punishment is the penalty of death for a crime. The most common criminals who are executed are convicted murderers. What message is that sending? The use of capital punishment sends the message that murder is okay, as long as it is applied to the right person. The application of capital punishment in our society is hypocritical. It has no place in the judicial system. The way we handle the punishment of capital crimes is pathetic! There are other ways to punish criminals outside of taking their lives, but we, for some reason, feel the need to play the exterminator. The people who commit capital crimes are not animals to be exterminated. They are human. They deserve the same breath that everyone else takes. If a person commits a heinous crime then that person is obviously not normal. That person is obviously in need of mental help and, we should help these criminals instead of hurting them (religioustolerance.org). Criminals have families and friends who care about them. Why should the innocent bystanders be punished because of another's actions? Killing anyone, for any reason, only brings on more pain and suffering than is necessary. We should recognize the problems in 2our society and heal those problems instead of placing a temporary fix on a permanent problem. Capital punishment is excessive and unnecessary. Killing a criminal only solves one problem and causes many more. The one problem it solves is the criminal is no longer walking the streets. Encarceration would serve the same purpose. If the criminal is encarcerated then he/she no longer poses a direct threat to society, so killing him/her would be overkill (pardon the pun). It causes other problems because the criminal was executed merely out of retribution. Sort of an eye for an eye. Actions like this only keep hatred and condemnation flowing in society (progress.org...
