Are we playing God? Have we completely forgotten humanity? When I think of the death penalty, I am reminded of Jesus and when he confronted the people who had gathered to stone a woman who had been caught committing a crime, saying, “If any of you has never sinned, then go ahead and cast first stone against her." .” (John 8:7) This action clearly demonstrates that Jesus believed it was a problem to impose the death penalty because no one is without sin. Jesus did not say that adultery should not be a crime punishable by death, but he did point out the problem of imposing such a penalty. These valuable human rights lessons have been completely ignored by US society. During the last decade more than 500 prisoners have been executed in the United States. Another 3,500 wait on death row. The United States is one of the very few industrialized countries in the world to execute criminals. It is one of the few countries in the world to have executed mentally ill people, people with very low IQs, and child murderers (that is, people who were under 18 at the time of the crime). How can a first world country that embraces Christianity, as its main religion, also embrace the death penalty? The death penalty is an archaic and barbaric form of punishment, the existence of which should be eliminated from all legal systems of civil societies. Let us set the pace and protect the human right to life from such an inhuman and degrading act. In the United States, approximately 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times. In the 1930s, up to 150 people were executed each year. Lack of public support for capital punishment and legal challenges reduced the rate of executions to nearly zero by 1967. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court banned the practice, however in 1976 the Supreme Court authorized its revival. Each state decided whether or not to introduce the death penalty. At the end of 1997, only 12 states did not have the death penalty; Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. From 1976, when executions resumed, to the end of 1997, 432 executions occurred in the United States. At the end of 1997, there were approximately 3,222 prisoners on death row in 34 states. 47 (1.5%) are women. Recent laws have expanded the number of crimes for which the death penalty can be applied. Other laws have reduced part of… half of the charter… which would override human rights, and furthermore the death penalty contradicts the internationally accepted goal of rehabilitating the offender. I believe it is more important that the person sentenced to capital punishment pays the price for the rest of his life. By eliminating a person through the death penalty, people will forget about the person and the act they committed, which would not serve the deterrent purpose of the punishment. Letting the convicted capital offender live to be reformed and work to make amends for his crime is far more meaningful and effective as a deterrent against similar crimes committed by others. Stop playing God. Stop violating basic human rights. Let's close one of the degrading chapters of our society and show the world how civilized we really are. Work Cited Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/“Rights for All” http://www.rightsforall-usa.org/“The Annual Report” http://www.amnestyusa.org/ailib/airport/ ar99/amr51.htmLink on the death penalty “Human Rights Death Penalty” http://www.derechos.org/dp/Sandoholzer, Kuno US pages on the death penalty http://www.agitator.com/dp/