Just out of curiosity, if someone raped and tortured and murdered your three year old daughter or granddaughter would you favor the death penalty for that monster?
Or would you find comfort in the fact that he will continue to live for the next 50 years getting a sexual thrill every day from the memory of that event and getting 3 square meals a day, television, and free medical care while you pay for his useless existence by your taxes?
And if you would favor the death penalty in that case, then what gives you the right to dictate to others how they should react and to deny them the justice that you would desire.
When the State executes a murderer they are acting on behalf of not only the people of the state, but on behalf of the victim and the victim’s family.
This is long but it corresponds to what you have been saying:
Number 35:33 explains why it is essential to put murderers to death:
the blood that they have shed “defileth the land.” When a man is murdered, the earth opens “her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood” (Gen. 4:11). God did not create the earth for this purpose; thus, when blood is shed the land is profaned and corrupted. The good land that was made to sustain life is defiled when it receives the blood of a murdered man. Furthermore, the blood of the slain man cries out to God for justice (Gen. 4:10). When God created the land He saw that it was good; but now, wherever He sees innocent blood He sees a land that has been corrupted by sinful men; instead of the joyful songs of men enjoying the good land, He hears the mournful cry of the blood of the murdered man calling for justice.
The text states that the only way that the land can be cleansed of innocent blood is by the execution of the murderer: “and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.” A man defiled the land by his sin, other men can cleanse the land only by their obedience. Those who are charged with upholding God’s law and visiting God’s vengeance on evil doers (Rom. 13:4) cleanse the land of the pollution of innocent blood by obeying God’s command to execute murderers. By taking the life of the murderer, the demands of justice are met, and, therefore, the guilt of innocent blood is removed and the people who live on the land where the blood was shed are freed from the guilt of failing to “slay the slayer.”
If the magistrates and the people refuse to carry out God’s vengeance on the killer, they themselves will be under the wrath of God for failing to see murder as He sees it and for failing to punish it as He commands. The land would then be polluted in a three-fold way: by innocent blood, by the presence of the murderer, and by the people who have cast reproach upon God and His Word. The community bears the responsibility of investigating the murder and punishing the culprit according to God’s law. If it does not, then it incurs the guilt of disobedience and causes the stain of innocent blood to remain on the community itself because it has disregarded God’s command.
I know this: vengeance will not have assuaged my hatred nor sorrow. Only forgiveness by God’s grace would set me free from the bitterness of that situation.