Life or Death

In light of the crazy criminal practice I have somehow got myself into, I have been spending a lot of time pondering the death penalty. I see what you are thinking: very happy topic, Miss M. But really, I have been up to my ears in death penalty cases. Here is what I have concluded: the death penalty should be abolished. Why you ask? The silly reasons are as follows:

1. It creates more work for me.
2. It costs more for the court appointed attorneys to represent them.
3. It kills trees. Lots of them. (And what did the trees do to deserve that?)

As for the more serious reasons, there are a few of those too. Here they go:

1. No person should decide to take another's life (I know if you are already found guilty of murder this is slightly compromised but signing a death verdict is not much better.)
2. Finding a way to constitutionally kill people is a problem.
3. Most civilized societies recognize that capital punishment is no longer acceptable.
4. The legislature has no right to put its citizens in a position where they are forced to decide if someone will live or die.

The last reason sticks with me. In the past 2 weeks we have been selecting a jury and this seems to be something that keeps coming up. Anyway, these are just my musings on the subject.