Quote Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube View Post
There are cases where the Death Penalty is valid. Certainly, any murderer deserves death.

HOWEVER, the threat of convicting an innocent man is a very real one. What does anyone get from the death penalty, besides some vague sense of peace of mind? Is that worth an innocent man's life? The answer is no.

Unless you can trust your government to be right 100% of the time, the Death Penalty is unethical. Vengeance is a petty excuse to run to the risk of killing innocent people.
The last man executed in the UK was innocent, as were several before that. Suspicions over the validity of our hangins was part of the reason for abolition - we were quite quick on the drop and generally exoneration came only after the fact.

Then you have the hangman who tried (and failed) to kill him self.

The biggest problem with the death penalty, though, is that is "very murdered deserves death" you have to execute your executioners or the law is an Ass.