“Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man's life”

I absolutely inhale true crime shows. The criminal mind is endlessly fascinating to me. So I watch 48 Hours Mystery every week. This week they talked about Amber Dubois. Apparently the sick and twisted scumbag who killed her had been released from prison after being convicted as a child-sex-offender. For a start, I don't understand why these people aren't flat out killed when they're found guilty. Their re-offend rate is sky-high and I think it's safe to say that killing them spares more lives than it takes. Please don't misunderstand me. My desire to see them given the death penalty has nothin to do with revenge or punishment, and everything to do with protecting society from their particular breed of "sickness". For another, this monster had hundreds of parole violations that should have landed him back in prison. Oh I understand the system is bogged down. Try telling that to Amber's mama. You see, I suppose I fancy a sort of simplistic view of our criminal justice system. If I were in charge (a scary thought to some of you, I'm sure), there would be a long list of hang-able offenses. When found guilty, said offender would be hanged within the week in plain view of the town. I imagine that this would occasionally result in the hanging of an "innocent" individual. I'm also certain that this number would be far less than the number of innocent lives saved by doing away with criminals in a timely fashion. See the reason the death penalty doesn't act as a deterrent (the way it should) is because there are a minimum of ***SEVEN*** appeals that are required by law before the punishment is carried out. What are the chances there won't be a loophole found in those seven trials to get these people off death row. In order for the death penalty to act as a deterrent, and thus save lives, it needs to be applied quickly and without the option for so many appeals. Again, I am not blind to the idea that some innocent people may get killed. And of course, it would be a terrible tragedy when that happened...just as it is when some jackass gets out of jail and kills two or three or five or eleven other people before being put back in jail instead of killed.

.....And don't get me started on the punishment fitting for an abortion doctor.

"I don’t think you should support the death penalty to seek revenge. I don’t think that’s right. I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives."
--George W. Bush