Abolish Death Penalty?

One of my students was giving his "persuasive" speech in class tonight against the death penalty. His first reason for abolishing it was that it is cruel and "brutish". IN his concluding remarks, he offered some alternatives to the death penalty, like education...and, to use his words, "torture". Yes, he said torture. In my response to him after class, I did inform him that some people would clasify torture as "brutish" too. (The class laughed)