'Into the Abyss': Thoughts on Abolishing the Death Penalty

by Jim Kopetz

   

    We enter Into the Abyss and ponder the death penalty, as Connecticut abolishes it.

    When I first heard about Connecticut abrogating the death penalty, my thoughts immediately went to Werner Herzog's latest documentary 'Into the Abyss', leading me down a Herzogian hole of life, death, and the eternal abyss we all must face. Do murderers deserve to live? Should tax dollars go to trying to rehabilitate psychopathic killers, rapists, and the innocent? What about the innocent? If one dies as an innocent man does it balance out with those guilty?

    These are the questions one must face when deducing the need for an exterminating angel. What about the costs? Does it really cost more to kill a man than to feed and house him for the rest of his life? I don't know where I stand on capital punishment. My beliefs evolve daily.

    Herzog's film does little to alleviate one's hesitance in declaring their vote for one side or the other. He seeks only truth, and truth is purely subjective. You feel for the madness these individuals must suffer through but at the same time they deserve to die. Or do they? Are we evolving? Or are we just being politically correct?