Religious leaders sign letter asking legislators to end death penalty

"'This represents a longstanding commitment the Episcopal Church has to eliminating the death penalty,' said Bishop Franklin Brookhart of the Episcopalian Diocese of Montana.

He added that capital punishment goes against the principles of the church ...."

If capital punishment goes against the principles of the church, and the death penalty is mostly used for people who have committed murders, than what exactly does the church suggest in way of punishment for these crimes? What's the alternative? Keep them in prison for the rest of their lives? This would led to a more overcrowded prison system, not to mention the message that people can committ these crimes and all they get is room and broad for the rest of his/her life. This makes no sense to me. And I don't mean to sound disrepctful, but I truly don't see the point in doing away with the death penalty. Yes, it is wrong to kill another person, but if that person was found guilty, with no possibility that they were innocent, and they did something so terrible, why not give that person the death penalty? What with appeals and scheduling it could take years for the actual execution to take place?

okie wrote:

... it is wrong to kill another person, but if that person was found guilty, with no possibility that they were innocent, and they did something so terrible, why not give that person the death penalty? What with appeals and scheduling it could take years for the actual execution to take place?

There is certainly a biblical precedent for capital punishment, and that argument once got me out of jury duty.