>I look upon the death penalty as possibly the most barbaric act that a supposedly civilised society can perform.
>
>Hey, Alan,
>
>This may surprise you, but I agree with that statement. The death penalty is cruel. It's barbaric. It's harsh to the extreme. And it's supposed to be that way.
>
I know that. But I also believe that a civilised society ought not to perform acts that it knows fall into that category.

Yes, I read the article, but I also noted in that article that the only such statistical report that was subjected to proper scientific analysis was found wanting. That means that society is knowingly performing this barbaric act without any real accompanying knowledge that it accomplishes anything worthwhile, which makes it even more barbaric in my eyes.