One of the issues that really makes me sick to my stomach is the death penalty. Though so many other developed countries—and lesser developed nations, as well!—have abolished it, we continue the grisly practice, and have conducted the fifth highest numbers of executions in the world as of 2009—beaten only by China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Given how so many of our country’s citizens feel about the governments in these countries and their noted human rights abuses—particularly in cases where women are stoned for adultery and people are hanged for speaking out against the government or being gay—you’d think we wouldn’t want to be grouped with them in this violent category.

More and more countries are ceasing to use the death penalty; only five developed countries continue to use it. And it’s being killed, so to speak, for good reason; not only is it considered a cruel and unusual form of punishment in most nations—which, if we, too, thought of it in such a light, it would be illegal under our own laws—it is also a highly flawed policy. Innocent people have been executed; in fact, many innocent people go to jail every year for crimes they did not commit due to issues with our own legal system and their legal representation. As of today in the U.S. alone, 255 people who were awaiting lethal injection have been exonerated due to technological advances in DNA evidence. We unfortunately have no idea of knowing how many innocent people have been executed, though we can guess that the numbers must be quite high, given this startling conviction rate of people who did not commit crimes.

Yet we continue to have people who staunchly support the death penalty! “An eye for an eye,” they say, and beat their sticks against the walls of their caves before they go out to hunt a mammoth. I, too, shared this sentiment—until I was about thirteen and realized how wrong it was. I’m also shocked at how many of these people proclaim to be Christians, who aren’t supposed to judge; isn’t their god supposed to do the punishing here?

If we want to progress beyond the reptilian brains we so adamantly insist upon clinging to, we must at least take a hard look at our legal system and take action to prevent such gross cases of injustice from occurring. Please write to Congress today and ask that a panel be used to investigate our legal system and its flaws, and to repair it so that not one more drop of blood is needlessly shed.