"Measure for measure, blow for blow." "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." "He hit me first!" The idea of retributive justice is among the most basic and primitive moral impulses, an impotent attempt to undo injustice by canceling it out with a little bit of sympathetic magic.
The death penalty never brings back the victims of violent crime, but it makes all of us killers by proxy--and gives our government the ominous power to decide which citizens may live and which citizens may die.
1. The Eighth Amendment: Text, Origins, and Meaning
Photo: Library of Congress.
The Eighth Amendment, barring "cruel and unusual punishment," was inspired by the Italian political philosopher Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794). It is somewhat ironic that the amendment he inspired has not been interpreted as broad enough to prohibit the death penalty, a form of punishment that Beccaria strongly opposed on the basis that it is both ineffective and inhumane.
2. Types of Executions
Photo: Library of Congress.
Although lethal injection has become the primary mode of prisoner execution in the United States, eight forms of capital punishment are still practiced in the world today, and four of these methods are still occasionally put to use in the United States.
3. Top 10 Death Penalty Blogs
Photo: Patrick Riviere / Getty Images.
From Dead Man Walking author Sister Helen Prejean to Maryland death row inmate Vernon Evans, anti-death penalty bloggers represent a wide spectrum of backgrounds and perspectives.
4. The Execution of Angel Díaz
Photo: Mike Simons / Getty Images.
In early 2007, Angel Díaz was tortured to death by the State of Florida. His agonizing death led three states to declare a temporary moratorium on executions pending review of lethal injection protocols.
5. The Crucifixion of Manadel al-Jamadi
Photo: Public domain.
Under the dictorship of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib Prison was regarded by Iraqis as a hellish theater of torture and death. When U.S. forces took control of the prison, the Abu Ghraib nightmare should have ended. It didn't.
6. The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ
Photo: © 2006 Leonardo Pallotta.
The most famous execution in human history is, in and of itself, a compelling argument against capital punishment.
