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Over the years I've shifted back and forth on my opinion of the death penalty. On some days I may be more inclined to feel sympathy and desire leniency for a criminal. Whereas on other days I may be feeling particularly strict or even vengeful. Each time, no matter how I was feeling, I was sure that I was being logical and not letting my emotions get the better of me.

Many people will say that emotion needs to be taken out of the issue and that when determining the use of the death penalty one must rely solely on reasoned judgment and sound understanding of the law. Others argue that this is impossible. They argue that, given the nature of the crimes that tend to warrant the death penalty, one can not remove themselves emotionally from the decision and for that reason the death penalty is inherently flawed.

I would argue that both of these opinions are true...at least partly true. Logic, reason, and strict adherence to the law are definitely of absolute importance...during the trial. Once a person has been found guilty, however, and it is time for sentencing, emotion is not only inherently involved, it is critical to the process. The effect that the criminal has had on the victims needs to be heard, and felt, in order to produce and appropriate sentence. If that sentence is the death penalty, so be it.

But isn't that vengeance, and isn't vengeance wrong? Yes it is vengeance, and no, I don't believe vengeance is wrong. Vengeance isn't just about getting back at someone. It's about closure. It's about imposing personal responsibility on those who refuse to accept it for themselves. Most of all, it's about making someone feel and acknowledge, through their punishment, the pain and suffering they have caused. Logically, or emotionally, the only way to do this with capital offenders, especially murderers, is to kill them.

Advocates for the death penalty often use other arguments to support the death penalty. They make the claim that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to more crime. People are less likely to commit a heinous crime if they know that they could get the death penalty. Advocates also point to safety. If someone has committed a murder, it may be in the publics' best interest to put that person to death for fear that he may murder again. Life in prison isn't enough because could still pose a threat to the other inmates, and although prisoners have been denied their right to freedom, they still have their right to life.

Still, does a society have the right,

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