KR,
A dear friend once summed up the death penalty, in a way that is just perfect.
In my opinion, the way you view the death penalty is "wrong" ..infact I feel that way about a lot of people's "reasons" for supporting it, or not.
The death penalty should be seen NOT as a means of punishment.
The death penalty STOPS reoccurance. this is the important part. Punishing people is irrelevant when the opportunity for reoccurance does not exist.
This is incredibly important for multiple reasons, especially in terms of not caring about people's sap stories or illness, as again...it's about reoccurance.
This also stops the "now youre as bad as them" argument.
I don't mind the painting. As I unfortunately feel society can't hide from the horrors that have accrued.
I think it should be both a punishment and a method to stop reoccurance....Why should it not be a punishment?? I am a very forgiving person...but NOT at all for murder....and since I don't believe in an afterlife...I consider it the ultimate crime to take an innocent persons life.
Thats why I could care less if you were abused or neglected or whatnot in your childhood...That doesn't give you the right to prematurely end an innocent persons life in a horrible way....The only life that person will ever get....I wish every state in America had a death penalty....
Plus it costs tax dollars to keep these monsters alive...Doesn't bother me much that my tax dollars contribute to food stamps for poor families.....but this bothers me immensely....Revenge is a good thing in many circumstances.