And the world record for "most botched execution" goes to...

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Now you just turned murder into a numbers game. If X amount of people think someone should be murdered, he should be.

It's a slippery slope, it doesn't set a very nice precedent for others, and it reveals a belief that people can not change - regardless.

Scary, in my probably not humble opinion.

As I noted, Kad', I am no longer a proponent of the death penalty. My comment was against your labeling it as "murder."

I would agree that it is probably not the best option in a vast majority of instances. Historically, the death penalty has shown rather little in the way of deterrence value; given modern practice the cost of trying a death penalty case and housing those sentenced to death after the exhaustion of appeals, stays and what-not is about $2.5M per offender -- whereas trial and a sentence of life without parole would require that the prisoner live more than 50 years to become a greater cost burden to the state; finally, whatever the death penalty does to stop recidivism (Vincenzo is correct that it does stop repeat offenses once sentence is completed) is countered in part by those who have been wrongly sentenced to death (pretty hard to gain judicial review after the death penalty has been carried out).

Vincenzo:

Both of your scriptural references are taken from the Old Testament -- which describes far more of a "contractual" relationship between humankind and the Almighty. Given the general sense among Christians that the New Testament supersedes the old when the two speak at cross purposes, it might well be noted that nowhere in the Gospels is there a call for the death penalty. Instead, while accepting his own sacrifice, Jesus counsels us to adopt the Great Commandment instead. Paulist references to the death penalty are metaphorical rather than direct and Revalation's reference to those who kill by the sword meeting death by the sword is couched in the basic framework of the Apocalypse.