The Meat of the Matter

Furthermore

To add insult to injury on our journey to becoming a more progressive nation, we just executed our 1,000th prisoner since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. That's roughly one state-sponsored killing every 10 days. I encourage everyone to watch "The Decalogue" particularly episode five, which represents the 5th commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill." Polish Director Krzysztof Kieślowski shows how a brutal, senseless murder is not made aright by the state brutally and senselessly murdering the criminal. And that's just the emotional argument. The logical one is that we have put the wrong people to death on many occasions. And if we actually put to death enough criminals for the death penalty to become a deterrent, we would kill even more innocent people. Bad idea. Lock 'em up, and throw away the key. But state-sponsored murder is expensive, immoral, not a deterrent, and in the words of Jesus, will result in a toothless and eyeless world.