I personally am against the idea of having a death penalty at this current time. Right now, in our justice system, as Misty stated, there have been people convicted by faulty evidence, and innocent people killed. If we cannot even distinguish if a person is completely guilty of a crime deserving capital punishment, then what gives us the right to take their life? When criminals are placed in prison for a life term, instead of put on death row, there remains the possibility of discovering that the incriminating evidence is faulty. But with the death penalty, the only thing left to happen if such a thing is discovered is to say, "Oops, well, we can't bring him back." Death is irreversible, so what gives us the power or right to permanently end the life of another human being, even if they killed someone? I do not think anyone should be able to wield that power. Relating to executions and the death penalty, there has always been a certain part of the procedure that does not make sense to me in this form of "justice". This part is that to execute a person, it takes someone to push the red button, or make the lethal injection. The executioner then, too, by definition, is a murderer. Why should they not go to court, get tried, and get the death penalty themselves? Even though they may have seen the execution as protecting the world from a criminal, they still technically have killed someone. And so continues this vicious cycle of revenge for murder with murder. There are other ways to deal with criminals, but, as of now, the death penalty is not a just option.