Response: The Actual Point of Justice

In response to Brian's post "Discussing the Death Penalty Beyond Race" (April 7, 2012):

I agree that the death penalty is immoral.  This is primarily because the point of the justice system is, at least in theory, supposed to be to protect people from those who have committed criminal acts.  Even if one is opposed to the more rehabilitation-focused justice system strategies in some other countries (I am not; the article on that Norwegian prison was great, by the way), one can at least admit that a life sentence is essentially as effective as the death penalty in this respect.  The only reason for the death penalty to exist is to satisfy some people's desire for revenge - hardly an appropriate basis for a government policy which literally controls the life or death of other people.  Some also try to justify its existence by claiming that it is a more effective deterrent to crime than other sentences, but there is absolutely no evidence to prove this is the case; in fact, if the statistics on crime and prison return rates in countries with more lenient justice systems are anything to go by, it may actually be less effective in preventing crime than other, immeasurably more humane crime prevention methods.