"A society which kills, even though the killing is sanctified by law, is a less kind society, a less just society and a less merciful one."

-My Uncle Ed, defending the last man to ever be executed in the state of New York (Eddie Lee Mays, 1963), before the state's highest court.

Whether you're for or against the death penalty in the United States, you can't deny the last part of that thought.

But a judge on that same court once said, "absolutes, howsoever well-intentioned, have a perverse way of turning into plagues."

Chew on that.