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--overall, I have to agree with you.

Overall, I agree with both of you. I do not want to debate it, most people on both sides of the issue have their opinions set in stone. Mine is too.

I have heard every argument pro and con that exists but it's important to me to express which side of the issue that I am on.

For those who would ask - Yes, that includes members of my own family as victims and yes, I would defend my family with deadly force.

My opinion is not "set in stone". To the contrary, I was very pro-death penalty just 3 or 4 years ago. However, this reality we live in forces us to make tough choices. We claim we want to protect the innocent and disadvantaged but the poor and minorities are at a distinct disadvantage in obtaining an adequate defense against any crime, including capitol crimes.

We are not "all men are created equal" when it comes to our legal system.

In just the last 25 years 80+ "criminals" on death row have been released because they were later found to be innocent of the crimes they were accused of. I can only assume that most of them were minorities and/or poor and had to rely on public "defenders".

A state-sponsored death penalty can give people an excuse for vigilantism. "Hey, this child molesting slime ball is going to be executed anyway, so let's just do it now!" I see this attitude nearly every day on FR. I want no part of it.

If the state executes an innocent the state becomes nothing more than a goverment-sponsored lynch mob. That makes us no better than Islam or the KKK. I want to believe that we are more civilized than the KKK, Muslims and Chinese.

Finally: grownups are allowed to think, reconsider and disagree without their "adulthood" being called into question, Hinckley Buzzard. Apology accepted.