We as a society have to move away from the "eye for an eye" revenge mentality if civilization is to advance.The "eye for an eye" mentality will never solve anything. A revenge philosophy inevitably leads to an endless cycle of violence. Why do you think the Israeli-Palestine conflict has been going on for 60+ years? Why do you think gang violence in some country's never seems to end? It is important to send a message to society that striking back at your enemy purely for revenge will always make matters worse.

And on top of that it also sends the wrong message why kill people who kill people to show killing is wrong.

Yes, we want to make sure there is accountability for crime and an effective deterrent in place; however, the death penalty has a message of "You killed one of us, so we'll kill you". The system is actually using a murder to punish someone who committed a murder. Does that make sense?

To me it is the only deterrent that is effective enough.

And your arguement about the Israeli-Palestine conflict is irrelevant. Murderers are not forming coallitions to attack the government officials that sentence their fellow murderers to death row. Its an entirely different situation. When you sentence a man to death row, he is dying for his own crimes and is being held accountable for his own actions.

Gang violence will only get worse if we flood our prisons with murderers who would otherwise be on death row. Introducing corrupted minds into our rehabilitation system can only hurt the situation.

People who prey on the innocent, beating, raping and murdering inocent people, do not deserve the air we breathe. Living is a privelege, not a right.