The story of Cain and Abel is a very clear manifestation of the seriousness of this commandment. After Cain had murdered his brother Abel, God punished him, not by death, but by banishing him from the land whereby Cain became a wonderer. But, God also went ahead to “put mark on him to prevent him from being killed by anyone who would meet him” (Genesis 4:1- 16).

By his own example, God denounces justice based on vengeance and violence. “We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing,” says Pope John Paul II. The death penalty perpetuates the very evil it is trying to terminate. The practice and promotion of the death penalty is a reflection of the ‘culture of death’ of our times. The act of killing a person is intrinsically an evil, whether lawfully or unlawfully, by a murderer or by the state. It is the reasons that make it appear different.

.....Capital punishment is in the same category as abortion and euthanasia. They are a premeditated taking away of human life, and are, therefore, immoral. It is bad enough for society to lose one person, but worse to lose yet another, for whatever reason. The end does not justify the means. Whether the death penalty is legal is no reason for resorting to it or to upholding it.

,,,,The death penalty has an inherent weakness of injustice, since the weak and poor are more easily proven guilty than the rich and more powerful. That people continue to kill inspite of the application of capital punishment as a deterrent is an indicator that we are only tackling a problem at the level of symptoms than of the root-cause. Killing by the state sets a bad precedence and promotes mob justice. The modern state is better placed to curb crime than the old state.

Putting aside the religious perspective for a moment, the author also makes this excellent point:

Life imprisonment makes more sense. The culprit can repent and even earn a living for the aggrieved family. Says Bishop David B. Thomson: “Capital punishment feeds the cycle of violence in society by pandering to a lust for revenge. It brutalizes us and deadens our sensitivities to the precious nature of every single human life.”