[randog]

It doesn’t matter how they die, the real penalty is the wait. If we wanted to be humane we’d drug their dinner one random night and kill them in their sleep.

[MoMagic]

If we wanted to be humane we’d drug their dinner one random night and kill them in their sleep.

If we were wanting justice, we'd invite the surviving relatives into a room and ask them what they want done -- give them 5 minutes to get it done.

[stuartcr]

Absolutely

[azhenfud]

"If we wanted to be humane we’d drug their dinner one random night and kill them in their sleep."

I don't believe so. The humane thing is to publicly execute any condemned so the society that levies the death penalty has a connection to the crime/punishment, so the deterrent factor isn't diminished because the state hid an execution from the public eye. I believe the more this would be done sooner, the less it'd be necessitated later. The last public execution (hanging) in my home county was in 1904 with the next murder committed in 1932 - yes, a full 28 years later.

Mind you, I'm an advocate of administering the death penalty when warranted, but not when the intended deterrent effect is destroyed. Capital punishment is and never was intended so much as a get even program as it is a teaching by example institution.