>The value of a human life doesn't have to be infinite, it need
>only exceed the social benefits of capital punishment. Thus, the
I agree (but that's not what you were saying before).
>proponents of the death penalty must demonstrate *unequivocally*
>that its benefits outweigh the near-certain cost of committing an
>occasional atrocity.
What do you mean by *unequivocally*? What if it turns out that the state
causes more innocent people to die by releasing known murderers than
by executing them accidently? (I'm not a proponent of capital punishment,
I'm just playing devil's advocate to bring the relevant issues to light.)
-- David McFadzean dbm@merak.com Memetic Engineer http://www.merak.com/~dbm/ Merak Projects Ltd.