Deen Chatterjee: Capital punishment is a moral abomination that is beyond fixing.
Rep. Lowry Snow, R-Santa Clara, chief sponsor of HB0147, a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in Utah, speaks during the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee meeting in the House building at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022.The United States keeps a higher percentage of its people in prison than any other country in the world, including Russia and China.
Yet there are glimmers of hope in our deep red state for far-sighted reforms in the state’s criminal justice system. The current Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill has been a long advocate of taking a systemic approach to the issues of criminal and social justice that looks at the root causes of crime.
In their call to end the death penalty, the county attorneys also cited compelling moral arguments against punishment by execution. Because only capital punishment is irrevocable, there is no possibility of compensating an innocent person wrongfully executed. Perhaps we cannot avoid the possibility of convicting innocent persons. However, we must avoid the possibility of being unable to rectify such a mistake.
I would like to show that the death penalty is unfair in yet another important way. The idea of retribution — that the wrongdoer deserves punishment in proportion to the crime — is an important element of justice in our moral and legal codes. However, important considerations show that the goal of retribution is seldom achieved in our criminal justice system in connection with capital punishment.
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