Word: ought
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Likewise, faulty and demagogic arguments both against and in favor of capital punishment ought to be pushed aside in favor of serious consideration of the issue. In the end, in spite of the admittedly serious flaws in the process, the death penalty should be limitedly available as a tool of society in dealing with particularly egregious crimes. Many with particular, moral perspectives will disagree on this very personal and contentious issue. But we must clear the underbrush of the debate before we can effectively engage...
...framer's intent" perspective, the Founders could not possibly have meant to exclude capital punishment from the Constitution since the death penalty was quite prevalent in every part of the Union in the late 18th century. If society decides that capital punishment is in fact cruel and unusual, it ought to amend the Constitution to outlaw it; the death penalty thus falls well within the category of institutions to be established by the majority on a state-by-state basis...
...precisely in the justice system do we find the arena of the bulk of death penalty discourse. Even those who have no moral opposition to the state's disposal of its worst criminals doubt whether society ought to adopt such a powerful and dangerous weapon. After all, death is permanent: if we put someone in jail for life, we can always free him if new evidence crops up; but if we execute him, we cannot undo any subsequently discovered injustice. However, this is a difference in degree, not in kind. We must consider it a societal tragedy if we wrongfully...
...society must take part in that effort. But we cannot operate any sort of society if we have no basic confidence in our system. Instead, if the majority of any state supports the use of a weapon more forbidding and dangerous than any thermonuclear device, it ought to be allowed to wield that weapon. It must, however, exercise the utmost caution in the use of that weapon so that the rampant tide of current events, the Curleys and Woodwards, does not unduly influence the pulling of the trigger...
...Well-informed debate, not current events, ought to inform the decisions our legislators make...