The death penalty should be abolished, and I believe that it will be done on a state-by-state basis instead of on a national level unless the U.S. Supreme Court changes. Why? First, I believe in the sanctity of life, even that of awful persons — I believe that a far more fitting punishment for them is to face their crime, what they’ve done and to find a way to atone for it. Secondly, the statistics of our justice systems are simply not good enough to warrant the death penalty. Too many times, we’ve executed the wrong person for crimes — as studies of some states have found, the number of additional murders that would have been prevented by an execution are fewer than the number of innocent persons killed erroneously through the power of the state.