Death no more: It's time to end capital punishment

Dallas Morning News | Editorials:

“There are signs [an executed man] was innocent. We don't know for sure, but we do know that if the state made a mistake, nothing can rectify it. And that uncomfortable truth has led this editorial board to re-examine its century-old stance on the death penalty. This board has lost confidence that the state of Texas can guarantee that every inmate it executes is truly guilty of murder. We do not believe that any legal system devised by inherently flawed human beings can determine with moral certainty the guilt of every defendant convicted of murder. That is why we believe the state of Texas should abandon the death penalty – because we cannot reconcile the fact that it is both imperfect and irreversible.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Air tight logic. How many more years must go by, how many more irreversible mistakes must be risked, before the voters and legislators of Texas reason it out for themselves?

Some argue that there are crimes that demand finality. True enough, except the death penalty spells finality to a person, not to a crime. Sometimes, the death penalty leaves an aching doubt that prevents society from every achieving finality to a crime.

Some argue that the death penalty sends a powerful message. That it does. It's a message that the state is all powerful, not that the state is right or just.

Some argue that the death penalty is applied fairly, accurately and sparingly. Each of those characterizations is open to debate. Because society will never be of one mind, and society's prevailing opinion will evolve over time, sometimes in favor of the death penalty and sometimes against, application of the death penalty is necessarily arbitrary. Arbitrary yet final. Society should find that to be unacceptable.