The death penalty, even when justified, should not be torturous. This kind of fantasizing is morally objectionable, and manifests a corrupt mind.
If you think someone "needs" to suffer hideously, you can leave that to the hereafter. No one on earth is authorized to do such a thing, nor even to desire it.
Pray for me.
I can’t go there with you.
“The death penalty, even when justified, should not be torturous. This kind of fantasizing is morally objectionable, and manifests a corrupt mind.”
In the Bible, justice was eye-for-an-eye.
Stoning was also a common form of capital punishment which is certainly “torture” by today’s standards.
There are limits to what is humane when it comes to human justice. But I think we’ve erred greatly on the side of favoring the criminals over the victims in our society.
There are times when it would be better to have no law at all and let people simply mete out justice as they see fit.
In cases like this I’d support giving immunity to a close relative of a murdered and tortured child and let the family member decide what is just.
Pay close attention to what this passage says about someone who burns someone in a crime:
Exodus 21:22-25
If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
More similar passages:
Leviticus 24:19-20
If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him— fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him.
See what it says about sympathy for criminals:
Deuteronomy 19:21
Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.