Utah killer executed by firing squad

Not executing the murderer shows that society has no power (or will) to provide restitution and justice to a victim's family. This is an issue of displaying to the people governed that their justice system will provide appropriate restitution and there is no need to resort to vigilantism, which if a society devolves to that, is much worse than a death penalty execution.

And from a strictly non-spiritual view, being alive and locked up is a lot better than being dead. If being locked up was so terrible, near the same as death, why are there not more suicides in jail?

As if executing the murderer is the only form of justice? To paraphrase Joe: everyone has a different idea of justice.

Prison is not a nice place. There are murders, rapes and suicides among all sorts of other terrible things. Ask anyone who has been to prison how great it is.

Yes. He is. The murderer took an innocent life from the societal whole and society owes a duty to its remaining citizens.

As a society, we place a paramount value on the protection of innocent life. We believe, it is fundamental and necessary to our existence as a society and to those fundamental truths articulated in our founding documents: "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

When someone demonstrates that they are willing to disregard/attack the core beliefs of our society, it is our duty, as a society, to make them pay the paramount penalty in order to demonstrate the value we as a society place on innocent life. Permitting a guilty murderer to live devalues the innocent life wrongly taken and, some would say, condones the taking of innocent life.

Again, is compassion and forgiveness an element of "justice", if so, who decides when compassion is appropriate? Which is more important - condoning societal compassion to a murderer or making a clear and consistent statement that, in our society, innocent life is our most treasured possesion?

Innocent life is clearly not valued and protected as much as you make it out to be when society enacts laws and punishments which inevitably lead to the death of innocents.

I agree that we should get prisoners to work.

But somehow you missed the "life in prison" phrase in the original post. We're not talking here of turning murderers loose.

They get turn loose everyday even when they get a life sentence. The only 100% way to know that they will not kill again is by the death sentence. Also an inmate serving a life sentence is the most dangerous person in the prison system because they know they are in there for life and what do they have to loose.

Lots of thoughtful posts going back and forth, but in the end I'm not sure this one is about thinking as much as it is feeling.

Seeing a murderer/rapist executed feels good to me. Makes things feel right.

Setting laws/punishment in a society is not a science. It comes down to the majority's wishes. Right now, a majority of people in a number of states feel good about executing these criminals. That's all that matters.

Where to draw the line as to who gets executed? Where the majority feels right about it. I think it's in a good place.

Lots of thoughtful posts going back and forth, but in the end I'm not sure this one is about thinking as much as it is feeling.

Seeing a murderer/rapist executed feels good to me. Makes things feel right.

Setting laws/punishment in a society is not a science. It comes down to the majority's wishes. Right now, a majority of people in a number of states feel good about executing these criminals. That's all that matters.

Where to draw the line as to who gets executed? Where the majority feels right about it. I think it's in a good place.

Good post, and 100% agree. Well thought out arguments on both sides, but in the end, I feel the same as you do. It's probably in a good place.

Off topic, and that was a very interesting dialogue on the Death Penalty in society, but here is some interesting details on Hitler's prison time:

New documents surface on Hitler's jail time - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100623/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_hitler_in_jail)

Off topic, and that was a very interesting dialogue on the Death Penalty in society, but here is some interesting details on Hitler's prison time:

New documents surface on Hitler's jail time - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100623/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_hitler_in_jail)

See look how many lives would have been saved if he had been executed.

They get turn loose everyday even when they get a life sentence. The only 100% way to know that they will not kill again is by the death sentence. Also an inmate serving a life sentence is the most dangerous person in the prison system because they know they are in there for life and what do they have to loose.

No. We are talking about life in prison WITHOUT PAROLE. And in maximum security. This set-up protects society from deviants every bit as much as executions.

See look how many lives would have been saved if he had been executed.

Yes, lives would have been saved if Hitler had been killed in 1923. But Hitler was not in prison for first-degree murder or some other death penalty offense. It is not the same thing.

Lots of thoughtful posts going back and forth, but in the end I'm not sure this one is about thinking as much as it is feeling.

Seeing a murderer/rapist executed feels good to me. Makes things feel right.

Setting laws/punishment in a society is not a science. It comes down to the majority's wishes. Right now, a majority of people in a number of states feel good about executing these criminals. That's all that matters.

Where to draw the line as to who gets executed? Where the majority feels right about it. I think it's in a good place.

I respect your opinions and am not saying that you are wrong. But notice that the arguments made by those against the death penalty are rational arguments, not emotive ones. Herein lies a difference between the sides. I'm not saying better or worse, just different.