Illustration by Josh Hagler

Thomas Hobbes once wrote, "Life is · nasty, brutish and short." We don't like to believe him. I can't say I'm exempt; there are times when I want nothing more than to draw the warm blanket of America up around me and let sleep rob me of my cynicism, my contempt for all things conservative and my uneasiness every time I pick up a newspaper. Like everyone, everywhere, sometimes I get so exhausted that all I want to do is forget, to let things slide just a little.

That's where the trouble starts. It seems like many of the injustices that have been integrated into our culture began as a small concession of consciousness and just · grew. Rather than examine the facts ourselves, one-by-one we begin to accept what the (non-liberal) media tells us, and believe adamantly the conclusions we have come to by synthesizing a few sound bytes.

I choose to believe that is how the death penalty came to be viewed as acceptable in this country. I can't believe people would willfully support an institution that is so vile, inhumane and immoral. I don't want to believe that Hobbes was right.

Please, America, don't prove me wrong.

There are many arguments we've been trained to recite in support of the death penalty, most of which are easily countered by the slightest bit of research and thought:

It's only fair - tit for tat.

There is nothing fair or decent about taking the life of another human being. It is not noble when a person at large does so, nor when it is the state executioner. Furthermore, the way in which the death penalty is applied is arbitrary and subjective. We are by nature fallible and should not be in the position of deciding who lives and who dies - period.

It's not inhumane.

Is it not inhumane to let another human being waste away in a prison cell for over a decade, with nothing to look forward to but his own demise? Consider the burden of knowing exactly when and where and how you are going to die - and counting down the days until it happens.

We need to get murderers out of the population.

Put them in prison for life without the possibility of parole.

That's too expensive.

It costs three times as much to put someone to death as to imprison that person for life.

They knew what they were doing when they killed.

It's true - many people on death row did know what they were doing when they committed their crime. As a rule, however, district attorneys do not discriminate on the basis of self-awareness. We are one of only three countries in the world that continues to execute mentally ill and mentally disabled people. We are also one of only seven countries since 1990 - the others are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen - to execute people convicted while juveniles. Yemen has since outlawed the practice.

It's a deterrent.

Rather than discourage violent behavior, the death penalty institutionalizes a cycle of retribution and brutalization. A recent New York Times study found that, since 1980, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.

The system is working.

If 'working' means 350 false convictions and 23 wrongful executions in the past century, then by all accounts, it is.

Race is not a factor.

Race isn't a reliable factor as long as you only examine the people being sentenced. However, that doesn't mean that the system isn't biased. 46 percent of death-row inmates are white; 43 percent are black. 81 percent of death-row victims are white; 14 percent are black. Look at as many studies as you like. Eventually, you arrive at one undeniable prejudice of the criminal justice system: that the life of a white person is worth more than that of a black person.

Given these facts, the conclusion that the death penalty is an archaic and unjust system seems incontrovertible. If you're not convinced, however, speak up. If you are convinced, still speak up. Whatever you decide, just don't be content to recite the same tired platitudes we learn by rote.

It's time to give capital punishment some serious thought. Let's not sleep through another decade, America, because we're too tired to look within.

The facts for this column were provided by Amnesty International.