Playing God: an argument against capital punishment

“It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind.”
George Bernard Shaw

The overwhelming support for capital punishment in our country is puzzling to me. Poll after poll shows that over 80% of America is in favor of the death penalty (Hertzberg 49). We rave about freedom and the virtues of democracy, but then we give our government ultimate power over our lives. Am I missing something? Are we a little confused, or just misinformed? After all, America is unique among other democratic nations in its use of the death penalty. Capital punishment is a useful tool for dictators and tyrannical countries; however, little by little the death penalty has been abolished in most countries except the United States. We stand proudly with countries such as Pakistan, Iran, China and Saudi Arabia on this issue. It wasn’t always this way, however. The United States w...