A wonderful explanation from Carlton Vogt, 01.01.2007, that hits the nail on the head for my arguments below.

[ http://cfvogt.com/Documents/01.%20That%20doesn't%20make%20any%20sense%20--%20January%201,%202007.htm ]

Thanks, Carlton! [my emphasis added...]

Justice doesn't come from simply killing the perpetrator. It comes from hearing the story and validating the suffering of the victims. I recently read one study showing that families of crime victims do not, in fact, find the ballyhooed "closure" that is supposed to come from the death of the offender. What people really want is for the world to know that they have suffered, what has happened to them, and how much they hurt. They want the offender, if not to answer for, at least to be confronted with his crimes.

What society should want is not merely to punish the offender, but to prevent whatever happened from happening again. If that isn't done, then the ritual killing just is bloodlust revenge.

• Here's another good starting point... here....

• Thank you, Judge Scalia

• Check here and wonder some more... capital punishment for rape, when many rapes are committed by relatives of the victim? That's going to bring more victims forward to testify? What were you thinking?!

• Then, ask why any country uses capital punishment. Ask what kind of countries still practice it.

• It's to provide a way to express anger towards someone who has committed a crime that's especially repulsive to us.
• But, note that expressing this anger can not bring back the murder victim, unrape the rape victim, etc.
• And .... there is one major hazard in executing criminals:

• What if we all agree to execute .... the wrong person?

• What then?

• A new crime of murder has been committed. An innocent victim has been killed. What's the next step?
• Convict all participants in this new crime, from the police to the lawyers to the jurors to the judge... of murder?
• And what would be a "fair" sentence?
• Execution?
• Get it? What if the jury vote weren't unanimous. Could you trust them to tell the truth later, about how they'd voted before ?
• We must put an end the death penalty.
• If someone does something so repugnant to society that society is so angry that we want them to never be able to put people at risk again, to never be able to move about freely in our society again, put them in prison for life with no chance of parole !
• Compared to the cost of the appeals process for someone sentenced to death, it's more cost-effective to keep them behind bars for the rest of their life!
• Cruel? But if you kill them, and you made a mistake, what then?
  • By the way, also consider:
    • Capital punishment is not a deterrent to people who would commit these crimes. It's a deterrent only to people who wouldn't commit these crimes. It's been proved over and over.
    • Trying to put criminals to death is a waste of time and money. Ask yourself why you or anyone else is still in favor of it, in light of these questions.

re: kinder executions.

i am opposed to capital punishment [see http://www.plusaf.com/Lessons/cappun.htm].

until the day comes when people wake up to "the facts" of capital punishment, 
it will continue.

since it will continue, it appalls me that human beings have been trying for 
decades to figure out "the most humane way" to execute the condemned.

if the goal is death of the condemned, and the added consideration is lack 
of cruelty or inhumane suffering, the solution is so painfully simple [pun intended] 
that this must be a discussion of something else... some elephant in the room 
that nobody's willing to talk about [again, see http://www.plusaf.com/Lessons/cappun.htm]....

the humane solution is to use a narcotic like morphine, inject it into the 
bloodstream slowly until the victim loses consciousness, and then increase 
the dose rapidly until there is no remaining electrical activity in the victim's brain.   
while this may take five or ten minutes to accomplish, the could be no question 
as to its effectiveness and no question as to the "humanity" of the process.

have you ever seen a dog "put down" to end its life?  a blue liquid is injected into
a vein and within a minute or so, the dog stops breathing, the heart stops, and it's dead.

no electric shocks, no gas chambers, just going to sleep for the last time.  why can't we
be that "humane" to humans?

if you can find a hole in this argument, i'd really like to hear it!

+af