In Cold Blood: Death Penalty

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with
humanism." In other words, society has long since left behind the archaic and
barbous" customs" from the cruel "eye for an eye" anti-human caves of religion-
another factor that should raise immediate misgivings for freethinkers.

State killings are morally bankrupt. Why do governments kill people to
show other people that killing people is wrong? Humanity becomes associated with
murderers when it replicate their deeds. Would society allow rape as the penalty
for rape or the burning of arsonists' homes as the penalty for arson?

The state should never have the power to murder its subjects. To give
the state this power eliminates the individual's most effective shield against
tyranny of the majority and is inconsistent with democratic principles.

Family and friends of murder victims are further victimized by state
killings. Quite a few leaders in the abolishment movement became involved
specially because someone they loved was murdered. Family of ...

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those on death row are almost without exception poor and
were living in poverty at the they were arrested. The majority of death-row
inmates were or are represented by court-appointed public defenders- and the
state is not obligated to provide an attorney at all for appeals beyond the
state level.

The application of capital punishment is racist. About 40 percent of
death-row inmates are black, whereas only 8 percent of the population as a whole
are black(Flanders 25). In cases with white victims, black defendants were four
to six times more likely to receive death sentences than white defendants who
had similar criminal histories. Studies show that the chance for a ...

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