Quote Originally Posted by GHoSToKeR
Surely we should be teaching children that killing another human is wrong and then setting a good example. It sends mixed messages when a government murders a murderer and even more mixed messages when normal, every day kinda people are cheering and jeering for somebody to be executed.

Yes, murderers should be removed from society so that they can no longer harm anybody else, but to murder them would serve absolutely no purpose other than to satisfy some sick, barbaric desire. THAT is what we need to kill.
The message I want to be sending to the children is that if they kill an innocent person they'll have a shitload of electricity pumped throught their body.

My whole argument for execution is not so much vindication as it is deterence. If it were vindication I could come up with a lot better ways to deal with these criminals. Execution is really the easy way out but the the fear of death is much more powerful psychologically. If we could come up with an alternative punishment that would be as psychologically deterring as execution I'd be all for it. I'm sure all those prisoner rights groups out there would have issue with that as well though.