···She had just condemned a living human to death. She had little choice under the legal instructions, but nevertheless, she (I imagine) was not about to stand up and own such a heinous act as sending someone to death.··· Amos

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Must it always be 'heinous'? Is it not at least arguable that there are 'living humans' without whose continued existence the world can be a better, safer place?

I simply put these questions with no rhetorical suggestion of an answer, as I do not purport to know the answer. It is, as I said before, a matter on which I feel profound ambivalences. But I think these are questions to which the most positive of the denouncers of the death penalty should at least afford some consideration.

~Michael~