Quote Originally Posted by gRomoZeka View Post
I guess I'm one of the very few barbarians here who support the idea of capital punishment.
I certainly would not call you a barbarian and I am sure you know that!!
Your opinions seem to be well founded and well balanced..
I think people's view on these sort of issues are influenced by the kind of environment they grew up in, to some degree. You and I probably come at this issue from quite a different angle. If I had your experience I might hold the same view as you, and vice versa.

I watched a terrible film once (back in school) that followed a black man in the USA who was sentenced for a murder which he said from the start that he did not commit. He was guilty of some other crimes though, like robberies etc. He was sentenced to death, appealed etc. Became a born-again Christian etc, but the sentence stood. Eventually he was executed in the electric chair and they practically showed the whole execution on the film. Really gruesome. Some of the victims relatives were actually allowed to be there while the man was being executed. Later, it turned out that the man probably did not commit the crime.

The religious view on this would be "let him who is free of sin throw the first stone", and "thou shalt not kill".
If the person is imprisoned for life, he can work and do some good, paying off his debt to society. And if it should turn out that a mistake was committed, the person can be released and compensated.