Is it worth dying for?

What gives one human being the right to take the life of another? At what point do we say, we need to rid the society of this person? And above all, the question that is more important and compelling to me - How do we know we got the right person?

Prisons serve two main purposes. One, to remove the wrong-doers away from the society, punish, reform and get them ready to rejoin the society. Second, is the prohibitive value of it. Just the fear of going to such a treacherous place and be isolated from life as you know it, is supposed to be a deterrent for folks to keep from crime.

Death sentence, definitely does not serve the first purpose. There is no punishment. There is no rehabilitation. There is no rejoining the society. So, the obvious value of death sentence is to be a deterrent. Also, there is the additional benefit of the death sentence; the society is rid of this undesirable element and we don't have to pay for a lifetime of a prison for someone. Their life is of no worth to the rest of the society except - by being taken away - serve as an example to others. Though, a typical death sentence, ironically, does include time in prison prior to the execution. Further, there is the "eye-for-an-eye" motive, which is primitive and panders to the basic human tendency of revenge.

The horror of this is that it is predicated on a system that is not perfect. What if he/she was in the wrong place in the wrong time? I agree that the process is more rigorous and the system is not easy on doling out death sentences but there are still mistakes! With the advancement of technology, new type of evidence is exonerating folks who have been doomed to die bringing us to the inevitable question:

How many people who are already executed were innocent?

It makes me shudder to even think that the answer is very definite greater than zero. Imagine that! An innocent man, arrested, prosecuted, convicted, sentenced and killed. All for committing nothing. And there is nothing we can do now, because he is dead. It is irreversible. Where do you draw the line on the probability of error? How many lives are worth sacrificing to rid the society of these heinous criminals? Is it ok to be wrong once in a hundred times? Thousand times? Ten thousand? Even a million times? Would it be ok to have that one wrong person to be you?