executed. The fate of one man's life often depends on the whims and prejudgements of the jury he is granted. Only 0.3 % of those convinced of crimes eligible for capital punishment are sentenced to death. Of course, one may think it good that such a relatively small number of people are executed, but this number represents the frivolous inclination of the legal system. In fact, since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1976, only five white persons have been executed for killing a black person. This tells the public that the value of their lives depends on their race and the jury's opinion of them. This sets back years of struggle for civil rights in the North America. Society suffers in the face of such and pre-dispose 'justice'. Besides being arbitrary in selection, once selected, the condemned must undergo a series of cruel and torturous events. The enforcement of capital punishment is a sadistic and macabre activity which appeals to the more grim aspects of human nature: wrath and malice. The condemned is told of his execution date and is then confined in a maximum security prison to await his execution. This is hardly a fitting punishment even if one believes that death is the answer. "For there to be an equivalence between criminal homicide and execution," Albert Camus wrote, "the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who from that moment onward had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life." The fact that society feels such abhorrence for murders is veritably human, but to then do exactly to the criminal what caused them to hate the criminal in the first place is ridiculous. It is fitting that the guilty should be sentenced to life in prison, which is certainly not a pleasant experience by any measure. This should suffice as punishment that does not violate th...
