Capital punishment is the last remnant of an archaic, primitive justice system. It is a vestige of a bygone era, an era during which punishment, either for lack of humanity or alternatives or both, was physical, violent, cruel and irreversible. It is a relic of the past, a relic that is not concordant with any of the contemporary aims of sentencing. That a barbaric practice like the death penalty continues to be used in a large number of countries, including the most populous and wealthiest countries of the world, is a reality that defies logic and rationality. The death penalty, regardless of what its proponents say, is simply a mode of vengeance rather than a means of expressing society's disapproval. It neither fosters nor promotes reverence for life, because its effect on the public mind is one of brutalizing and not of humanizing.