I would first like to address the main issue involved with capital punishment: human life. The accused possibly guilty, possibly not. The question is should we butcher all of the accused? Are we that sure of our own perfection? The issues I would, as well, like to discuss are that of unequal application, discrimination, bad legal representation, and finally, that capital punishment is a government murder.
             Before I move on to the issues already mentioned I would like to provide a little history on capital punishment. England, for instance, at one point had 250 capital crimes from bread snatching to murder. Judges knew that their role was to keep order in a society facing food shortages during heir early stages of development to capitalism. History shows that governments use capital punishment as means to prevent crime, as a means of retribution, or revenge. Aside from deterence factors and retribution, governments see capital punishment as a proportional punishment. Life for life. The death penalty was seen as both dramatic and symbolic. Absolute punishment, like capital punishment, demands absolute certaintly of equality and fairness in treatment and correct conviction, which is impossible. No justice system can guarantee equal application of any punishment. According to Pheobe
             Ellesworth and Samuel Gross, "Arbitrary result, which are all too common in death penalty cases, frequently stem from inadaquacy of counsel. The process of sorting out who is most deserving of society's ultimate punishment does not work when the most fundamental components of the adversary system, competent legal representation by counsel, is missing. Essential guarantees of the Bill of Rights may be disregarded because counsel failed to assert them, and juries may be deprived of critical facts needed to make reliable determinations of the guilt or punishment. The result is a process that lacks the fairness and intergrity." So simply ...