in my state the last govenor reinstated the death penalty. i personally am against it for the reasons so well said above. i just don't see how we spend years telling our kids not to retaliate unless absolute necessary and then do the opposite. i don't see how violent is defined consistently either. as was mentioned above drunk driving with regard to vehicular manslaughter, but isn't a person who is driving drunk already willing to commit the same thing? does not taking a cab to the bar indicate premeditation? How about domestic violence cases where the abused premediates killing of the person who beat them for years? Here they often get lifelong sentences because it seems that beaten women aren't allowed to fight back for real. it has been shown that our criminal justice system is flawed, as did the discovery of DNA for forensics free falsly incarecerated people. what do we say to their kids? oops? life in prison in NYS is horrible and imo death is easier. when my ex husband was in county jail things were bad although he belonged there. rats and mice all over the place. guards who treated me like a criminal because i showed up for an inmate who wasn't even convicted and for all they knew was innocent and poor. here poor people and minorities have a much higher rate of being jailed and is it always because they did it? like the guy in "To Kill a Mockingbird"? i have long wondered why non-violent criminals go to jail instead of community service like cleaning the damn parkways and leave the violent people together to exact vengeance. atleast in my country we can't seem to decide if its rehabilitation or revenge we want. lets all imagine that if i was accused of a crime and my Masters toys were discovered what would happen with that jury