It was no coincidence that the bombing fell on the two year anniversary of this event." (Gleick 46) The Oklahoma City bombing seems to be a case of revenge for McVeigh. Therefore, many believe that we should not further the cycle of revenge by sentencing him to death, and they strongly support their opinion with a number of other ideas. .
This, however, is most likely the most common argument of people who are against capital punishment. "Revenge is an unworthy motive for our society to pursue." (Whittier 1) In our society, there is a great expectation placed on the family of a victim to pursue a complete retaliation upon the guilty. Pat Bane, executive director of the Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation (MVFR), stated, "One parent told me that people made her feel like she was betraying her son because she did not want to kill the person who murdered him." (Frame 50) This creates a moral dilemma where their own consciences will be burdened by the death of the killer. Furthermore, "[k]illing him will not bring back your son[s]." (Grisham 402). At some point, we must stop the cycle of violence. Seeking temporary gratification is not a good enough reason to support the death penalty.
Another frequent argument of opposition is supported by the idea that it does not always create deterrence. A lot of people believe that the enforcement of the death penalty will dissuade other criminals from committing similar violent acts, and numerous studies have been brought about in attempt to prove this belief. However, "[a]ll the evidence taken together makes it hard to be confident that capital punishment deters more than long prison terms do." (Cavanagh 4) Going ever further, Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Montgomery based Equal Justice Initiative, has stated that " people are increasingly realizing that the more we resort to killing as a legitimate response to our frustration and anger with violence, the more violent our society becomes We could execute all three thousand people on death row, and most people would not feel any safer tomorrow.