Capital Punishment has been part of the criminal justice
             system since the earliest of times. The Babylonian Hammurabi Code(ca.
             1700 B.C.) decreed death for crimes as minor as the fraudulent sale of
             beer(Flanders 3). Egyptians could be put to death for disclosing the
             location of sacred burial sites(Flanders 3). However, in recent times
             opponents have shown the death penalty to be racist, barbaric, and in
             violation with the United States Constitution as "...cruel and unusual
             punishment." In this country,although laws governing the application
             of the death penalty have undergone many changes since biblical
             times, the punishment endures, and controversy has never been greater.
             A prisoner's death wish cannot grant a right not otherwise
             possessed. Abolitionists maintain that the state has no right to kill
             anyone. The right to reject life imprisonment and choose death should
             be respected, but it changes nothing for those who oppose the death at
             The death penalty is irrational- a fact that should carry
             considerable weight with rationalists. As Albert Camus pointed out, "
             Capital punishment....has always been a religious punishment and is
             reconcilable with humanism." In other words, society has long since
             left behind the archaic and barbous "customs" from the cruel "eye for
             an eye" anti-human caves of religion- another factor that should
             raise immediate misgivings for freethinkers.
             State killings are morally bankrupt. Why do governments kill
             people to show other people that killing people is wrong? Humanity
             becomes associated with murderers when it replicate their deeds. Would
             society allow rape as the penalty for rape or the burning of
             arsonists' homes as the penalty for arson?
             The state should never have the power to murder its subjects.
             To give the state this power eliminates the individual's most
             effective shield against ...