Capital punishment

I support the abolition of the death penalty for capital federal offenses. I also support the end of capital punishment at the state level, however, I believe it is the right of the states, and their duly elected representatives, to decide this issue for themselves. I do not support a Constitutional amendment to sanction nor prohibit the use of the death penalty among the states.
An often cited arguement in favor of capital punbishment is that the punishment should fit the crime. The obvious penalty for the taking of a life is the loss of the life that took it. There can be no dispute in the logic. Logic, however, does not make right any more than might would. The notion of retaliating in kind has not worked for thousands of years in the Middle East relations, and it does not work in the American justice system either.
My opposition to capital punishment is not on 8th amendment grounds. I only feel that it is cruel when it is applied to the innocent. The main fault I find with state ordered execution is its ineffectiveness. Capital punishment does not deter violent crime. Murder rates of states that impose the ultimate penalty are consistently higher than in states that do not. In fact, they have been higher every year since 1999, without a single exception. This doesn't necessarily indicate that murder occurs more frequently because of the death penalty. At the same time, it would be extremely difficult to argue that it serves as a deterrent.
Despite numerous legal safeguards, in the form or mandatory appeals and jury trials, to ensure that only the truly guilty are condemned, innocent people are often mistakenly executed. Unfairly, these victims are usually the poor who can not afford the best legal counsel available. The death penalty can simply not be administered fairly and accurately.
No legal system can be completely accurate and mistakes are unfortuantely inevitable. Alternate forms of sentencing, such as imprisonment for life, are equally susceptible to error. These failings of the legal system, as with the death penalty, are unfair to the disadvantaged. However, alternatives to execution can be rectified when an error is discovered and proven in a court of law. The true tragedy of the death penalty is that once it is administered and an injustice is subsequently realized, it can't be undone.
Crimes that are subject to imposition of the ultimate penalty are serious and should have serious consequences. The severity of the penalty should be both effective and fair. To some, death is preferable to confinement. A sentence of life in prison can be corrected, should an injustice occur, but it is also actually a harsher punishment than death. Most importantly, it serves the same goal of removing dangerous criminals from society.