Death Penalty

Death penalty is moral because it is how my society has decided is the best way to deter and to punish murder.

     I chose to write about this topic because I find it the most widely discussed and conflicted over. The death penalty, or capital punishment because of the conflist of whether or not it is ethical to "fight fire with fire". From the two different perspectives come justifiable reasons for their opinion, the question lies in which argument is more or less superior. From one end of the spectrum, that the death penalty is moral, it is said that the person in question who committed the crime chose to commit that crime. They therefore have to accpet the known punishment if caught. It can be argued along with this statement that the death penalty being enforced in a state can help to keep the crime rate down because the person who commits the crime knows of the possible repercussions. However this can be countered by the other opinion that it is a proven fact that murder rates decline in those cities/states that do NOT enforce capital punishment. They also are of the opinion that mistakes can be made and therefore the execution of an innocent citizen is more than probable. This is due to the fact that the legal system is no where near perfect and things can "slip through the bars" and a wrongfully convicted man would be put to death.
      From a purely moral point-of-view I am personally split on the question of the morality of the issue.  On one hand I do believe that there are some crimes that need to be punishable by death not only on a safety level, but a psychological reassurance level, for the victims of the crime. Especially when the alternative is a lifetime of solitary confinement, which is both irresponsible ethically, morally and economically. I believe that if the judicial system succeeds and justice is met by the government that the death penalty is not truly morally correct but a much better alternative to solitary confinement.  There are the beliefs that fire can only be fought with fire, and then there is the aspect from which I agree, being, "A eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". The death penalty is not the solution for incarceration and it is morally incorrect. I think that the judicial system is in limbo between these two views and has no where else to turn.