by Mick Marten

Created on: May 24, 2008

The death penalty, or capital punishment, has been a part of the justice system of almost every successful nation on the planet at one time or another. Even those countries who now detest the thought of capitol punishment usually can find some experience with that form of punishment in their own pasts; in fact, many of them were quite enthusiastic in employing it.

Here in America capitol punishment has been rendered distasteful (in a country that once, also, used it enthusiastically), by many factors, including the use of hanging, once a popularly used method of capitol punishment, by racist groups like the KKK, the use of electricity, which was easily fallible, and frequently proved to be less than humane, and un-ending questions about whether or not we were really sure enough about the guilt of those sentenced to death.

All of these are legitimate concerns.

But what really caused the public to turn away from capitol punishment in droves was the 'revenge' aspect that the punishment held for many. One got the impression during execution's American hey-day that many took pleasure in seeing the condemned put to death. This took on an air of ancient Rome, and the use of death as entertainment, and many felt shame, and found themselves feeling disgusted with the practice, which, under the circumstances is totally understandable. I don't want to picture a time when the loss or taking of a life is not viewed with apprehension, especially when done so as a governmental practice.

But execution was never meant to be what many viewed it as; it was never meant to be torturous, as many see it. In fact, the history of capitol punishment is marked by change after change to the methods and implementation of execution in order to make it quicker and/or less painful, in order to be as humane as is possible, while still ending the life of the sentenced.

And the recent use of DNA evidence to exonerate many of those sentenced to death has brought into question how many of those executed were truly innocent. And that's a truly disturbing question.

That being said, I am not opposed to the death penalty; in fact, I am an advocate of it. However, I am not sure that any government, the body of people who buy ten-thousand dollar claw hammers, and spend hundreds of millions of dollars with wanton frivolousness, are the correct people to have this decision in their hands. In fact, I believe that execution should ONLY be allowed if a jury sees it as a fitting punishment. This puts the

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