Why we should enforce the death penalty

[Troubleshooter]

Originally posted by marichiko
"The State should strive to the same ethics as the individual, but the state has responsibilities that we do not and must sometimes add corrallaries to those ethics to cover those situations. Otherwise it could not function in a way resembling it's goals."

Exactly, the State bears a heavy burden of responsibility to those it governs. All the more reason that its actions be ethical without resorting to the cop-out of situational ethics.

You selectively edited out the part that was most important.

"The State should strive to the same ethics as the individual, but the state has responsibilities that we do not...

Some ethics, by definition, have to be situational. Polar logic isn't always applicable.

Originally posted by marichiko

"I think that the lack of deterrent effect is due to the disparity between the ideal of capital punishment and its lack of proper implementation."

Then why do nations that do not embrace this "ideal" still have a lower murder rate per capita than we do?

My point was that it's possible that it doesn't have the desired deterrent effect because people know the liklihood that they will actully be executed is so slim as to be effectively zero and that their lives inside are better than their lives outside.