Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has written a powerful essay against the death penalty in the next edition of The New York Review of Books. The essay was published tonight online and you can read it here. Stevens' essay is actually a review of Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition by David Garland.
I admit that I've seen cases over the years where I quietly thought that I'd want to be the executioner. Wesley Allan Dodd comes to mind. There have been others, too. But Stevens, in his essay, eloquently captures the primary reason I oppose the death penalty—our society's inability to justly administer the ultimate exercise of state power. Read Stevens' argument for yourself. See if you agree.