Bang bang. You're dead.

Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Boswana, Palestinian Authority, North Korea, Vietnam, Swaziland, Pakistan, Uganda… These are countries which, along with the United States, permit capital punishment.

Australia, Denmark, Norway, Vatican City, the United Kingdom, Greece, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, the Phillipines… These are countries which have altogether outlawed the death penalty. (For a more complete list, check here.)

But as I look at the list, I see that a predominance of “civilized countries” that share the Judeo-Christian ideals on which our country was founded have either abolished the death penalty altogether or us it in the rarest of circumstances.

And then I read a headline which reads Utah Man Dies In A Barrage Of Bullets. And when I realize that this “barrage of bullets” was carried out not by a Mexican drug cartel but rather by men paid by the state to kill a man who could have been imprisoned for life for his crime, I have to wonder. Is this really what we want our tax dollars to pay for? We can't even argue that it costs less - see here. So why do we do this?

What about you?

What do you think?

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