ming an execution is far more costly than any Dollar amount. He states, “And, most basically, whether we’re comfortable in our souls with the collective responsibility we assume when the state puts someone to death”(Dionne 441). Along with morality, Dionne speaks about religion and the strong opposition of the Christian religion to capital punishment. Bedau would argue Dionne's views stating that morality should not even be an issue although it is often used as the strongest argument against capital punishment. He states, “Morally speaking, what are at stake are the reasons that can be brought forward to support or to criticize this punishment”(449). Although Bedau and Dionne might disagree, morality should be the only consideration of the death penalty. Dionne supports the Christian religion and the belief that killing is a sin but the famous proverb “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” is taken directly from the Bible. Van den Haag would agree with this quote stating that although execution may seem brutal, the crime committed was equally as vicious. “By committing the crime, the criminal volunteered to assume the risk of receiving legal punishment that he could have avoided by not committing the crime”(van den Haag, 446). This punishment Van den Haag speaks of leads to another controversy over capital punishment. Is it effective by means of deterring other possible criminals from committing violent crimes? Without actually being inside the thoughts of a criminal, it is hard to say whether or not the possibility of capital punishment would stop them from committing a crime. On an everyday basis, the risk of a consequence may restrain someone from doing an action, but Bedau believes that murder is such a prefabricated act that the risk of execution would not deter any criminals. In his essay Bedau states, “No one has ever offered any scientific evidence ...
