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I have supported capital punishment since I've been old enough to understand it - UNTIL RECENTLY.

I changed my mind, not because of the screwball reasoning in this article, but because we're finding so many people on death row who are innocent. (They're found to be innocent through DNA testing not available when the murders occured.)

On top of this, when inmates are found to be innocent, it frequently turns out that either the police completely ignored evidence that didn't support their conclusion, or they went so far as to fabricate evidence.

In addition, the death penalty at this point is used so infrequently, and takes so long for the penalty to be imposed, that it no longer functions as a deterrent. If the would-be killer even considers the penalty, they can easily conclude that, I probably won't get caught, if I do get caught, there's a good chance I can get off, if I don't get off, I probably won't get the death penalty, and if I do get sentenced to death, it'll take 'em 18 years to execute me!

But the overriding factor for me is the number of people found to be wrongly convicted. How many innocent people are we willing to execute in order to have a death penalty?

How many innocent people are we willing to execute....

Since I (nor, apprently, Amnesty International) can find an instance where that has ever happened, I'd say the system is working out pretty well.