1) The death penalty is more expensive<p>2) People sometimes are wrongly convicted, happens, will always happen, another point: Law is different, depending on where the trial happens, what state you are judged in, sentences differ. There is no way the death penalty can in any way be &quot;fairly&quot; handed down. (Law is not mathematics, it&#x27;s a social science)<p>3) Does it keep people from committing crimes? No obvious answer, likely not<p>4) There is a racial factor involved, black killing white more likely to get the death penalty than black killing black for example.<p>5) There are no good or bad people, that might be what religious people think, but you aren&#x27;t born a criminal, nor is it simply your well informed free choice to become one. What if I had grown up in a low income low educated black community with high criminal and incarceration rates, without a father and a single mother struggling to provide for her children? I am privileged and I know it, so even if someone does something hideous, shouldn&#x27;t society not be one of revenge, but one that while it punishes, also tries to lend a hand and tries to give support to a poor soul? (the American justice system is not working well in that regard, solution is more therapy, psychologists, less life-long sentences, no minimum sentences, better education, more social workers, et cetera, not death penalties...)<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deathpenaltyinfo.org&#x2F;costs-death-penalty" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.deathpenaltyinfo.org&#x2F;costs-death-penalty</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2014&#x2F;apr&#x2F;28&#x2F;death-penalty-study-4-percent-defendants-innocent" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2014&#x2F;apr&#x2F;28&#x2F;death-penalty-s...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.law.upenn.edu&#x2F;live&#x2F;files&#x2F;1529-nagin-full-reportpdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.law.upenn.edu&#x2F;live&#x2F;files&#x2F;1529-nagin-full-reportp...</a><p>[4] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;race-and-the-death-penalty&#x2F;373081&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;politics&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;race-and...</a><p>We value life according to some simple factors, how intelligent is it, how close is it to ours, how do we estimate its perception of its surroundings, its &quot;degree of consciousness&quot; so to speak, et cetera, in that regard killing an animal or a human being is different. It&#x27;s also different whether you kill an ant, or an elephant. That&#x27;s why killing an animal unlawfully does not have the same legal consequences as killing a human being. Your comparison is not really relevant and fair. Regarding abortion it&#x27;s the same, we are not talking about aborting fully grown human beings, I am pretty sure we are not talking about aborting fetuses one month before birth, more likely 6,7 months before birth in most cases... and even then I see how it is a moral dilemma for some people.<p>And wars should also be the absolute last course of action exactly because it kills people. And you see the consequences, does killing abroad make the United States safer?! In a lot of cases I doubt it, it fuels hatred and radicals... does killing criminals help anyone? let me summarize: it costs more, there is a racial bias, there always will be innocent among the criminals sentenced to death penalty, you are not a criminal out of free choice, violence fuels violence, it&#x27;s likely not to deter crime, ...