...emotional guilt trips are not the point here- I guarantee you the families of murder victims are sick of the killers languishing in prison as well. Why is the outrage of a convicted murderers family more valid than the outrage of the victims family???


The question still stands.

Quite untrue. Most victims' families find themselves angrier when waiting for the murderer to die. Most victims' families who isntead of wallowing in their anger, go to the prison to meet the murderer feel better afterwards. The idea of "closure through death penalty" is a load of crap. It just encourages the continuing of the anger rather than letting the families actually work through it in constructive ways.

I think the outrage of a conviction and execution of a non-murderer is the point here. There is no less outrage when Joe Citizen commits a murder. But society has little control over that particular act. But it's well within society's control to prevent the state-sanctioned killing of innocent men.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/20...ure/index.html

Excellent article at salon.com regarding victims' families. Unfortunately, you'll have to click on the "one day pass" thing and sit through a short commercial (and then probably click the link again), but it's a good read.

you're making a pretty strong generaliztion here- some families only gain that closure when the penalty is enforced.

Ugh on this whole thread. No offense to anyone but this thread's a drag.
It's an important subject to discuss, but we've been there and back again with the same cast of Middle Earth dwellers.
I'm movin' on to other LoT attractions.
:)

meh- I can't disagree with that.

More and more evidence is showing that that's a myth, that those that do find "closure" are the rare exception, not the rule.

so you would rather support killers for life than take them out of the system by using the death penalty?

Yes. And I'm not even going into the discussion about which costs more. Finances have nothing to do with my stance.