Compared to the moral argument that will leave you searching for a philosopher’s stone, the legal argument against the death penalty is easy and straightforward. First of all, it’s against the law. It’s against one of the first laws, if you come from and believe in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Moses was the first lawgiver, and one of his first ten rules (some would call them commandments) he claims God told him is “Thou shalt not kill.” Again, killing is kind of what people do, so most religious traditions go on to create enough exceptions to the “no killing” rule to drive a genocide, but
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