[Mad4stevie]

I used to be in support of it, until I took a law school class devoted entirely to the topic of Capital Punishment. After that, I had a very different view. It is amazing how much education can change your opinion.

Some things I didn't know or realize before my class in law school:

- Mentally retarded people can be executed
- It is not a deterrent because most people who commit murder do not really account for it in their "decisionmaking"
- It is not a deterrent because it is not a "swift and certain" punishment (i.e. the appeals drag on for years and your sentence could be commuted like Charles Manson, on legal technicalities)
- Lethal injection is not the quickest and surest method of execution - firing squad and hanging are
- It costs more in capital punishment cases because of all the automatic appeals, than it does to put the person in prison for life

However, my true feelings are that I am very uncomfortable with state-sanctioned killing. I think on some level it is like "playing God". And I don't feel that anyone should do that.