It always bugs me that the advocates of the Death Penalty try to use "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" to defend the Death Penalty. Didn't Jesus Himself say that it was once said that, but that we are called to love our enemies, bless those who persecute us, and generally return good for evil?

Didn't Jesus say we should be merciful as God has been merciful to us, and that if we don't show mercy our Father in Heaven won't show it to us? Yeah, the Old Testament Law did give lots of laws where the penalty for breaking them was death.

So the Pharisees were quite alright in trying to put the adulteress to death, right? Wrong. Jesus said unless we're without sin ourselves we can't execute those laws. Paul in Romans 3 says therefore anyone is guilty who condemns others according to the Law for they are guilty of the same things!

Paul makes his case all through Romans 3, pointing out that the WHOLE WORLD is guilty before God. None are justified by works, not one. Jesus is the only exception because He IS God, and therefore can't be guilty before Himself. It's like saying everybody is guilty before the Judge, but the possible exception is the Judge, therefore, only a human who was God, aka Jesus, could be sinless.

Therefore, the Law is indeed a just condemnation of what's wrong, but by it we're all guilty. We can't judge others according to it without being guiltless ourselves!

Human beings are fallible, and can't exact vengeance perfectly. That's why God says "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." I think we should leave the whole vengeance stuff up to him. Prison should be meant to protect society, not to punish wrongdoers.

The flaws from fallible people trying to execute perfect justice when God alone can do that are evident by all the people getting pardoned from Death Row thanks to DNA evidence. The bottom line is, if we can't ensure only guilty people will be on Death Row, then NO ONE should be on Death Row.