These are all good arguments for opposing capital punishment but my main objection is this: It's the coward's way out. How can we justify killing someone whose threat has ended with incarceration? In my mind it's an extension of the mentality of child abusers who know their victims can't fight back. Or of a cop who beats a handcuffed prisoner. I've felt this way since my second year as a police officer, back in the mid-sixties.
