Psychology Today | 06.10.2026 21:41
In 2013, I penned a post for Psychology Today titled “A Foolish and Barbaric Practice: Seven Reasons to Oppose Capital Punishment.” The seven reasons I cited were: (1) unequal administration (die in Phoenix, live in Tucson; die if poor or have bad lawyers, live if rich or have good ones), (2) tremendous cost of litigation, (3) many post-conviction exonerations, (4) lack of evidence that it deters murder, (5) myth that it provides closure for victims’ families, (6) cruelty of being in a condemned state for years or decades and (7) change in moral consensus (many states have abolished capital punishment, and almost no other first-world nation still allows it).
