From The Hill

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced  that it will resume capital punishment for the first time in nearly two decades.

Barr’s announcement comes as the number of executions in the United States has declined over the last decade amid concerns about whether capital punishment disproportionately impacts African Americans. Only three federal executions have taken place since 1988, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. All five of the death-row inmates named in Thursday’s release were convicted for the murders of children.

Some states have put a moratorium on the practice or suspended it, as wrongful convictions have also been spotlighted by groups such as the Innocence Project, which have secured the release of a number of death-row inmates in recent years.

The death penalty has been abolished in about 70 percent of countries, particularly democratic nations similar to the U.S.  In America, policies on executions vary greatly; states including Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania and California have issued moratoriums on capital punishment, while it has fallen out of general use in other states. But for some red states, such as Texas and Alabama, the death penalty is still a common practice.   (The Hill 25 July 2019)

My comment: Taking another person’s life is immoral. Period. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth might have prevailed as a revenge policy in primitive society, but has no place in more enlightened (?) times – nor should it have a place.

But there is an equally important and pragmatic consideration –  the death penalty is totally ineffective in preventing premeditated murder.  If your mind it twisted enough to seriously contemplate and plan the murder of another human being,  then either you are gambling on not being caught and executed, you don’t care or you would yourself welcome death.  On all counts you are mentally deranged and should be locked up.  State executions are executions in which all citizens are, by extension, implicated.  No thank you!