This comment is more than a joke. It is IMPORTANT that we vent our outrage as a society against those who commit atrocities. The current practice of keeping everything between the perp, and his lawyers, the DA prosecutors and the judge and jury doesn't allow public participation (vicarious of course) in the punishment. Instead, it numbs us to the most abhorrent crimes. We read about it in the papers or on the internet, then we later read about whatever sentence is handed down, and endless appeals. We are/have become robots, helpless pawns in a game of cops and robbers.
The people make the laws (by elected reps of course), and laws are made FOR the people. We have a RIGHT to see them carried out. I predict that if we reinstituted public hangings, support for the death penalty would go UP, not down.
[End of screed.]