If we add to that movies and television shows with themes of revenge, a moral model of killing in order to restore right emerges. Most murderers feel angry and jilted, so it is no wonder that they kill. Killing has been put forth as an act of empowerment while seeking therapy is thought of as a weakness. Even if a person does see that she needs therapy, there are few places for her to receive the attention she needs that are not shamefully expensive. Killing sprees are more immediately cost efficient, and if she is caught, the therapy is free. If she is caught.
There are statistics that show that half of those who have been sentenced to death have been exonerated. The figure could be exaggerated, but the fact remains that while trying to punish those who have killed innocent people, the system is executing guiltless people. And there is no way of punishing the system. The wrongs that the judicial system has created have no way of being set right. "Oops, sorry, wrong guy," is not enough. .
The law is an example for the people it governs. When the law causes the very thing it is trying to prevent, it is futile. .
The death penalty is meant to redress wrongs, to correct the death of the innocent. The logic is clear: eye for an eye; a simple law, easy to sympathize with. No one wants a .
murderer running rampant, free to enjoy pleasures unknown to her victims. It is true that something should be done. Regretfully, things in life are not so simple. Sending a loved one's assassin to the electric chair does not correct the fact that the loved one is gone and will not be returning. It isn't fair. The employment of law often is not fair. While one commuter may be going thirty miles over the speed limit and not be ticketed, another could be going only ten miles over the speed limit and get caught. There is variability throughout the system. It can not be relied on to weed out the innocent, nor restore a wrongful death.
