The death penalty is, undeniably, one of the most controversial issues of our time. Emotional tensions are high between those who hold human life above justice and those who hold justice above all human life. The death penalty, along with all other forms of criminal punishment, is barbaric. This form of punishment, indeed all forms of criminal justice, truly shows the level to which society has fallen. When people stand outside prisons and cheer while prisoners are murdered, there is a problem. When personal bloodlust is placed above moral ideologies, a problem arises. When human life is assigned a value and compared to other alternatives, a problem arises. The State speaks of Justice, but this word is only a reflection of the confusion, anger and hatred that have fermented in this country, indeed in the very foundations of human society. Truly there is no other purpose in the death penalty other than revenge. , yet it seems that our society has sunk to such a level that even revenge is acceptable to most. The state, however, imitates every repugnant quality of a punishable act of murder; murder committed in anger is punished by execution committed in anger; a cold, calculated murder committed with pleasure meets the same form of execution. The end result is the same and the feeling with which it is carried out is the same. There are, indeed, many qualities of the death penalty that overcome the moral obscenity of a criminal act of murder. So where is the difference between a murder and an execution? How can one form of murder be right and another wrong? How can the same action, performed by two different people, be once evil and another time divine? Furthermore, how can a morally adverse action pr...... middle of paper ......y address the problem of crime. If law is supposed to be objective and independent of religion, why is it based on these ancient and barbaric doctrines of a God who is more evil than divine? How can we defeat violence with violence? How can we defeat murder with murder? How can we defeat anger with anger? In this way we simply witness the propagation of the circumstances whose existence we claim to want to put an end to in our actions and in our minds. Have these senseless practices solved any of our problems? What about peace? Why, again, do people have to die? Maybe if we take the trouble to find out we can put an end to the problem, instead of having to delude ourselves into believing that murder will save the world. The road to peace is not paved with blood. Humanity must realize that the peace bought with murder is no peace at all; it is simply the silence of death.