A rotating panel of experts from the worlds of philosophy, psychology and religion offer their perspective on the dilemmas that come with living in Southern California.

Today’s question: Concluding that the death penalty is implemented unfairly in the United States, the American Bar Assn. is urging an immediate stop to executions until the system is changed to ensure greater fairness. As now implemented, decisions on who dies and who lives have less to do with the nature of the offense than with the nature of legal representation and race, according to the 370,000-member group. From your ethical and moral perspectives, is capital punishment permissible if it is carried out fairly?

John P. Daly

Director, Center for Asian Business, Loyola Marymount University

The ABA correctly questions the legal fairness of the death penalty. But a growing number of good people even question the right of the state to protect its citizens by taking the life of a person and violating the most fundamental ethical norm of respecting life and doing no harm. Capital punishment far from serving as a deterrent seems to be desensitizing society. Our Christian faith is founded on God’s mercy and forgiveness that must be reflected in our respect for human life and in the belief of human regeneration. A consistent ethic of life is needed that questions the morality of taking any life, whether it be through abortion, war, euthanasia or capital punishment.

Sharon Presley

Executive director, Resources for Independent Thinking, Oakland

Can any punishment carried out by a political and politicized State ever be 100% fair? Can mere tinkering here and there make the judicial system infallible? I seriously question this. As long as one innocent person can be put to death, the system is not “fair.” As long as juries can be swayed by chicanery and emotion, the system is not “fair.” While I think that there are people who are so evil they do in principle deserve to die, I do not believe that the power of life and death should be given to an inherently corruptible and imperfect system of State political power.

Ken Fong

Senior pastor, Evergreen Baptist Church, Rosemead

As one who believes that all of life begins and ends with God, my deepest instinct is to be against all forms of capital punishment, no matter how “fair” we might make the system. I believe that the Bible teaches that every person is imbued with intrinsic worth simply because we are all created in God’s image. However, I begin to capitulate to capital punishment at times when I apply this same holy standard to the often hapless victims of vicious killers. A murderer has acted in God’s stead, extinguishing the existence of another precious human being. Maybe justice will only be served when all those who take a life must automatically forfeit theirs.

Compiled by K. CONNIE KANG, Times staff writer