1) Democracy. The death penalty is totalitarian. I don’t want anyone killed in my name, in our name. When the government prosecutes, convicts, sentences, and executes defendants, we the people are the plaintiff. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously said that in a democracy, not all are at fault, but everyone is responsible. The current system enforces that we citizens are co-responsible for our fellow citizens’ state-sanctioned murder, which is more akin to fascism than democracy. I dissent.