MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator...
The main arguments against capital punishment are well known. Sociologists and historians have definitively established that the death penalty has no effect on the crime rate. Even an ideal legal system (which does not exist in Russia) is not immune to wrong verdicts; and because death is final, there is no way to correct a mistake.
No mechanization of the process will prevent a person appointed by the government from flipping a switch on an electric chair or carrying out a lethal injection. Hence, the government employs executioners, which seems out of place in the 21st century.
There is also a moral aspect. There is also a moral aspect. If a group of people kills one of its kin - even legally - how does this differ from murder? Even the savage Cossack Taras Bulba tried to justify himself by saying he had the right to kill his own offspring. But when life-or-death issues are decided by a heartless government agency, even this justification does not apply.