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On my show today we discussed the death penalty. I said that I have come to support it, after opposing it for years. But there is one problem with the death penalty that still gives me pause and it’s a problem I never hear anyone bring up:
I’m concerned about the psychological and moral burden it has on the people tasked with administering it. I think it might be argued that execution is a job which no human is fit or able to perform without severe consequences to their soul and psyche.
In the death penalty doc “Into The Abyss,” the first interview is with a prison chaplain who you can tell has been utterly broken under the weight of attending so many executions and being exposed to so much death.
Can we as a society support an institution that must necessarily have that effect on the people in charge of it? I suppose you could say the same about war but killing someone on the field of battle seems different from pulling them out of a jail cell and strapping to a gurney.
Anyway, that’s why I still struggle with it. But in the end I think it’s necessary and some crimes call for it.
