Life without parole is worse than the death penalty.

No, it is not a custom, I simply waited a round to make sure that any contentions I make are not based on misunderstandings which would be detrimental to me. Why define retribution: Retribution is the base of many Criminal Justice Systems such as those in the US. Thus its definition is needed to clarify its role in the worse or not worse debate regarding the death penalty and life imprisonmment. Can you cite your sources that life imprisonment is worse than capital punishment? Rebuttals Retribution is necessary in this debate as the death penalty and life imprisonment without possibility of parole both accomplishes the punitive measures in varying degrees. According to the definition of retribution that I have placed in R1, Capital punishment often fails at retribution because it is tinged with consequential factors such as to deter society, revenge, retaliation, and vengeance. Whereas Life imprisonment without possibility of parole according to you fails at deterrence, and maintains its severity as prisoners languish in cells for their crimes. Thus Life in imprisonment follows the criterion of retribution establishing its effectiveness in the United States criminal justice system. John P. Conrad, MA, former Chief of the Center for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation at the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, wrote: "I hold that the execution of the most contemptible murderer conflicts with the true functions of retributive justice" the repudiation of evil done and the prospective reconciliation of the criminal with the community he has wronged. When punishment lapses into mere retaliation, the criminal's total criminality is affirmed; there can be no reason to expect reconciliation. When that retaliation takes the form of execution, the community makes it clear that it expects neither atonement nor reconciliation. The unreconciled criminal was our enemy; once he is executed he is still unreconciled, a dead enemy. The scales of punishment that should compose the structure of retributive justice do not require retaliation, even at the apex where murderers must be punished. Capital punishment can be justified only by retaliatory justice as practiced in ancient Greece and Rome. For retributive justice, long imprisonment, sometimes life imprisonment, is the response that fits the continuity of punishments to which modern society is now committed... ...The death penalty is an anachronism of which society must purge itself so that the process of retributive justice may contribute to order and solidarity rather than to the inflammation of hostility." (1) The quote states how the effectiveness of life in prison without parole prevents the moral corruption of the United States Criminal Justice system. This corruption as stated in Mr. Conrad's book is the death penalty's justification via retaliatory justice which impedes the retributive justice system of the US. Mario Cuomo, JD, Governor of New York June 17, 1989 wrote: "What makes the risk of wrongful execution all the more unacceptable is that there is an effective alternative to burning the life out of human beings in the name of public safety. That alternative is just as permanent, at least as great a deterrent and - for those who are so inclined - far less expensive than the exhaustive legal appeals required in capital cases. That alternative is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. No 'minimums' or 'maximums.' No time off for good behavior. No chance of release by a parole board, ever. Not even the possibility of clemency. It is, in practical effect, a sentence of death in incarceration. Life without parole is achievable immediately. The Legislature could enact it Monday. I would sign the measure Tuesday. It would apply to crimes committed the next day. In fact, the only thing preventing the next cop killer from spending every day of the rest of his life in jail is the politics of death."(2) Based upon the risks of executing an innocent individual, the Criminal Justice system would fail on its mandate of upholding justice if it executes an innocent person who is convicted of a crime as that would constitute an irreparable injustice. Life without parole on the other hand is a reparable injustice as evidence is found to exonerate the convicted individual, which would result in his/her release and compensation for wrongful imprisonment. 1 -Van, Den Haag, Ernest., and John Phillips Conrad. The Death Penalty: A Debate. New York: Plenum, 1983. Print. 2 -Cuomo, Mario M. "New York State Shouldn't Kill People." New York Times 17 June 1989: n. pag. Print.