There are a number of reasons why we believe the death penalty should be abolished, not the least of which is the injustice of its application: the same crime may be punished by life imprisonment in one county and death in another.

We believe it is too costly, diverting valuable funds from more deserving programs, with no evidence whatsoever that the practice actually deters crime.

We cannot help but notice the elements of racism still clouding the system as well as the incidents of innocence which, together, seem to us to undermine the entire legitimacy of the system.

Finally, we admit to valuing life, in addition to supporting those more academic arguments which happily coincide with our belief. We believe that death should never be taken lightly and we refuse to support a system which kills its people in a failed attempt to carry out criminal justice