For one, is it just? Starting from a pro-life point of view, it hardly seems consistent with a culture that values life. In fact, a couple of Republicans in Kentucky are reconciling that very notion right now. State Rep. David Floyd introduced a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty, arguing in the Louisville Courier-Journal that conservatives “should not support a state government program that can kill innocent people.”

And indeed, innocent people are killed. In a study released last week, of the 7,482 death sentences handed down from 1973 to 2004, 117, or 1.6%, were eventually exonerated. The authors concluded though that with more time and resources, more than 200 additional prisoners would also have been cleared.

How many wrongful executions have we overseen? It’s nearly impossible to know — which in and of itself, should give us serious pause about the justness of capital punishment.