[PapaNew]

There are way to keep dangerous criminals from hurting others including isolation if need be. Contrast that with the often repeated scenario of new evidence later showing the executed man as innocent. Oh well...

My post # 18 lists some other reasons the death penalty does more harm than good.

[informavoracious]

He raped a baby to death. Millstone around the neck.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

The risk of executing an innocent person is the number one argument against the death penalty, and as a practical matter it is one I can appreciate. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the death penalty is good in principle.
In any case, losing 20 years of your life for a crime you didn’t do sucks too, and you will never get those years left. Should we just not punish people on the basis that there is a tiny chance that they were wrongly convicted?

I notice in another post that you imply that ‘vengeance’ doesn’t bring closure. You may be right about that, but again as a practical matter, the death penalty brings closure to the victim’s family. Kelsey Grammar, the guy who played ‘Frasier’ frequently has to go through the ordeal of persuading a parole board not to release his sister’s murderer. He wouldn’t have to put up with this if the state had just executed him as they should have done, instead the past keeps being dredged up just so that this worthless scumbag can get an ill-deserved chance of freedom every now and again.