Unitarian Universalists for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Ideas for Your Skeptical Friends
IF YOU SUPPORT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT:
In a system run by humans and therefore prone to human error, if you support capital punishment, you accept the fact that some of the people executed will be innocent.
As more and more teenagers are being tried as adults, if you support capital punishment, you accept the fact that some of the people executed will be children.
Because "knowing right from wrong" disqualifies an offender from using an insanity defense, if you support capital punishment, you accept the fact that some of the people executed will be mentally ill or mentally retarded.
In a society that clamors for victims' rights and compassion for the innocent, if you support capital punishment, you accept the fact that pain and suffering will be inflicted on those who have committed no crime, the family and friends of the offender.
In an age when more and more Americans distrust "the system," if you support capital punishment, you accept the fact that you have granted that system the right to decide which of its citizens deserve to die.
In a nation that prides itself on its criminal justice system, if you support capital punishment, you accept the fact that it is the poor who are executed and that the race of the victim does more to determine who gets a death sentence than the crime itself.
In a country that seeks to decrease violence on television, on the streets and in the family, if you support capital punishment, you accept the fact that our children will learn that killing is the solution to society's problems.
In a world that cries out for peace and understanding, if you support capital punishment, you have made a judgement that thousands of incarcerated Americans, (about whom you know only what the media has told you), are no longer human, are no longer children of God, and are incapable of change, reconciliation or redemption, and that the family of the murder victim are incapable of forgiveness.