Perhaps the greatest flaw in the capital punishment system is the potential for executing innocent people. Technological breakthroughs such as DNA fingerprinting have exonerated more than 80 people since 1973, the conclusive evidence sometimes surfacing just hours before they were scheduled to be executed. Many of these innocents spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit. The presidential elect should call for a national moratorium outlawing the death penalty. Such a measure was enacted on the state level in Illinois and has served to alleviate the many problems associated with this unjust form of punishment there.
Capital punishment is nothing more than a grand societal cop-out.
Instead of addressing the root of the problem, trying to understand what drives people to commit such crimes in the first place, then attempting to remedy it, our leaders have opted for a simpler solution. Capital punishment is not the answer and our future president should call for its abolishment.