Death Penalty

And so we reach the conclusion :-) In closing, I first want to respond on your recognition that I “seem to have been trying too hard to look at it in a really big picture sense”. I did say in the beginning that my views on life are descriptive (what is) and not prescriptive (what should be). I do this because if I base my judgments on what humans actually do, instead of what we have the potential to do, it reduces the chance that my perceptions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ will be swept from under me, as it were. So let me clarify that I never wholly dismissed opinions, my issue is with opinions which are derived from poorly drawn conclusions about life/reality. Lol. The assumption underlying your argument is that America has reached a state of sophistication/civility/evolution (technological, social, and educational advancement) sufficient to make punishments like the death penalty obsolete: This is 21st Century America. If you go up to any random person on the street, most of them will agree that racism, sexism, child labor, slavery, etc. are outdated. So why can't executions be outdated? Slavery is illegal because times change; times are still changing, yet we are stuck in the past on this one pointless issue. I meant it in the sense that the GOVERNMENT carrying out a legal execution is outdated, at least in many first-world countries. The comparison to developing countries was to show how "behind the times" we are in this aspect. The United States is a country which others look up to; we are the standard for many nations in terms of safety, fairness, freedom, etc It used to be that people would travel by carriage into town to watch the hangings of suspected murderers, thieves, and rapists. People in that time period, in addition to thinking that Capital Punishment was great, believed that gays were bad, that black people were bad, and that women should stay at home and raise children. We've reversed three of those four things in the past few decades What I have attempted to demonstrate in my rebuttals is that it does not logically follow that science, technology, and human rights lead to the eradication of the motive/rationalization for killing other human beings, be it for individuals or governments (especially as it hasn’t led to this). The BoP was on you, as pro, to prove this, not me…lol. You make a distinction between developed and developing countries to make the point that the U.S. is ‘behind the times’, but humans killing other humans (for whatever reason) is not an issue of national development, but rather, a human proclivity (governments are human, too), so I fail to see why the comparison is necessary. Your point ultimately comes down to saying ‘we should be better than this’ and ‘other developed countries have abolished it’-bandwagon-esque logic, both of which are fallacious. Your use of loaded language or ‘trigger words’ are an attempt to shame the government into doing ‘better’. You have not proven that it is harmful to society, nor that life incarceration is humane. Now had you argued about the irrevocability of the death sentence in light of the fallibility of the justice system i.e., if our government (purposed primarily to protecting the citizen) cannot be absolutely sure that it isn’t punishing an innocent person, then to have an irrevocable punishment means that it innocent people are punished (irreparably) which is directly contrary to its directive, etc.; I probably would not have taken you on…lol. Nonetheless, it’s been fun and engaging, so thank you for your time and attention…