# The Toxic Vengeance of Capital Punishment > Why America's death penalty fuels cycles of revenge instead of justice. - Title: The Toxic Vengeance of Capital Punishment · TIME | Shortify - Summary: Why America's death penalty fuels cycles of revenge instead of justice. The death penalty perpetuates vengeance rather than justice, as shown by historical… - Keywords: capital punishment, death penalty, revenge, benjamin rush, jefferson, clarence darrow, nidal hasan, polly klass, gavin newsom, executions, death row, TIME - Source: TIME — https://time.com/article/2026/11/12/the-toxic-vengeance-of-capital-punishment - Author: Dominic Erdozain - Published: 2026-11-12T15:50:50.311+00:00 - Read time: 1 min - Topics: capital punishment, death penalty, revenge, benjamin rush, jefferson, clarence darrow, nidal hasan, polly klass, gavin newsom, executions, death row, news ## Vonnegut's warning Kurt Vonnegut described revenge as a bad idea, noting america's deep hunger for vengeance. > revenge is a bad idea ## Death penalty debate A narrow majority of americans support both the death sentence and firing squad execution method. > narrow majority of americans approve of both the sentence and the method of death-by-firing-squad ## Vengeance culture A culture of vengeance tears at democracy's fabric, as seen in politics and media. > a culture of vengeance tears at the fabric of democracy ## Terry Aladjem's class Nearly all undergraduates in a 2000s class supported capital punishment, shocking the professor. > those who supported the death penalty vastly outnumbered their opponents ## Vengeance and democracy The death penalty is both problematic and a symptom of a wider democratic crisis. > the death penalty is at once deeply problematic on its own and a symptom of a wider malaise ## Fulbright on vengeance Senator Fulbright linked revenge to puritanism and the Salem witch trials. > the puritan way of thinking injected an absolutist strand into american thought ## Benjamin Rush's insight Rush saw criminals as humans, not monsters, and called execution a human sacrifice. > an execution in a republic is like a human sacrifice in religion ## Beccaria's influence Cesare Beccaria argued that the death penalty is barbaric and ineffective. > the death penalty is sanctified barbarism ## Jefferson's reforms Jefferson limited capital punishment to murder and treason, emphasizing mercy. > let mercy be the character of the law-giver ## Clarence Darrow's plea Darrow argued that death penalty makes violence a cycle rather than a solution. > to punish murder with death is to make less serious the original offense ## Clinton's clemency Clinton denied clemency for a brain-damaged man in 1992, showing political necessity. > the real bill clinton is not for capital punishment ## Newsom's action California governor Newsom commuted sentences for 548 death row inmates. > governor gavin newsom wrote last week ## Jess Nichol's view Jess Nichol, stepsister of Polly Klass, says death penalty fails to bring justice. > we used to think that having a vengeful death penalty sentence is going to be what gave us justice ## The future The future must reject vengeance to achieve true justice and human decency. > i want to live in a world where i am well, and not haunted by the hungry ghost of vengeance ## Key takeaway The death penalty perpetuates vengeance rather than justice, as shown by historical and modern examples of its corrosive effects.