the death penalty

I would like to start out by saying that you make a couple of valid points. First, keeping murderers in prison does waste tax money, I'm not arguing that. I would say, however, that saving money is a poor reason to kill a human being. I'm certain that those individuals who are found innocent after spending some time on death row were glad we "wasted" some money on them. Second,the justice system is improving, and we should be striving for that. However, there are still a few items to address. First of all I do not believe that the number of innocent people put to death is necessarily relevant, but I suppose it's a matter of how much you believe this penalty is worth. Do you believe that it is acceptable to kill a few innocent people as long as most of them are guilty? I do not. I am of the opinion that it is unconscionable to put the life a human being in the hands of a system that has so many inherent problems. The justice system does improve constantly, and thanks to scientific advancements, the chances of misinterpreting evidence are slim. There is still, however, the matter of human error. Prosecutors are not perfect , and they can and have taken the liberty of omitting key information from trials. I believe that you are engaging in a fallacious argument with the examples you provided. You are appealing to the emotions of people who like to see people get what they deserve. The detailed descriptions of grisly murders serves no other purpose than to incite people to rage against anyone accused of a murder. This is not productive, and as such should be left out of the debate. As a side note, I'm not entirely sure that "www.prodeathpenalty.com" is the most reliable and unbiased source for information on this particular topic. Alan Gell is one example of a man who was nearly put to death for a crime he did not commit. He sat on death row for 4 years before finding out that the witnesses who testified against him were in fact the murderers. The prosecutor had withheld key evidence including a taped conversation in which one of the witnesses talked about making up a story about the murder. I'm not saying Alan Gell was a good person. He had been arrested numerous times for other crimes, but he was not guilty of the murder. Would it have been acceptable to see him executed for the "greater good" of the death penalty. On that note, what exactly is the "greater good"? Is it the alleged deterrent effect? As for the definition of murder, I do believe malice should be taken into account. Do you honestly think that there is no malice in a capital punishment trial? The families of the victims are often too eager to see someone die for their loss. It really doesn't matter so much if the person is guilty, thy just need it for "closure." I believe Hungarian Philosopher Agnes Heller said it best when she laid it out logically: "If you support the death penalty, and only one single innocent person is killed, and killing an innocent person is murder, then you become murderers, and so you deserve to be killed." As for the deterrent effect, I found several sources that have reviewed this topic, and most claim there is little to no deterrent effect related to the death penalty. According to a survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies, 88% of these experts rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. (Radelet & Lacock, 2009) Source: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... Consistent with previous years, the 2008 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that the South had the highest murder rate. The South accounts for over 80% of executions. The Northeast, which has less than 1% of all executions, again had the lowest murder rate. Source: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org... I have trouble with the perceived inherency in the deterrent effect of capital punishment. Killing someone does not automatically deter people from the activity he or she is being killed for. I will acknowledge the following as an extreme example, and not necessarily indicative of the effects of capital punishment. It is, however, worth considering as an analogy of the deterrent effect in general. Did the execution of Jesus Christ deter Christianity?