Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
I agree about the desire for personal justice, but that is personal. Frankly, if someone takes personal vengeance for the murder of a child and kills the perpetrator, I for one would generally applaud them and hope they would be treated leniently by the judicial system. That, as you say, is a very natural right of justice that exists outside the law.

However, once you forego that option and leave it up to the state to enact justice on your behalf, you can basically fùck off as far as I'm concerned. At that point, your feelings no longer have anything to do with anything. It's just cold, dispassionate law.
Precisely. The worst road to go down is to confuse justice with vengeance. In this we separate justice in society from justice in the individual. We also separate justice (the notion) from law (the process).

The greater argument for capital punishment, or at least the most logical, is the notion of deterrence. Unfortunately, this doesnt work, particularly at the level of crime where the greatest support for capital punishment exists- treason, drug lords, etc. Those involved in these actions live their lives under a death sentence in their professions. A government rope isnt going to scare them.