The death penalty is another one of those things that is not black and white as people would want you believe.  If you don’t support the death penalty you are looked at as not being tough enough on criminals.  If you support the death penalty you come under fire from human rights groups for legalized murder.  Not only that, there is always the question of “What if that person put to death was innocent?”  It’s happened.  Innocent people have been put behind bars, their rights taken away and sometimes their life.

Our justice system isn’t perfect, but we need to make certain that it is doing its job before carrying out the death penalty.  No one wants the blood of innocents on their hands.  In this day and age there should be no reason that should even be an issue.  We have forensic science and DNA testing that we need to create a federal mandate to use to solidify a sometimes terrible or uninformed jury.  We need to be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone is guilty before we carry out any punishment, especially one that is irreversible.

The death penalty is one of a human rights issue.  There should be no compassion for rapists or murders; however the system needs to be fixed where we know for certain that the accused committed the offense.  We then need to leave much of it up to the states to decide if America is to be the America we once knew. In a perfect world there would be no death penalty or war, but the fact is we have enemies...and if we don't handle them with some enforcement, then we are a lawless society. However, the core issue is we can prevent much by placing more power to the families and empowering them. Some people get caught in situations because of the cards they've been dealt. For every action there is an equal reaction. We need a system of government and social justice to sort it out.  It’s hypocritical to support a War on Terror and call for air strikes, and then forget about the families who have lost sons, daughters, husbands and wives because someone chose to take that life from them. 

All violent crimes stem from a greater issue.  Once that is addressed we can make our society better.  Until then we need to find answers on how to make the system better.  Until these things can be accomplished, until the facts can come together and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone is guilty, that person deserves a stay of execution.