You voice some very good objections, like I said, when society can pave the roads well and respect honest people's rights, I'll have less problems with it. Unfortunately, we essentially let the prisoners dictate their own treatment in the US. What types of mattresses they will and won't sleep on, the types of "toys" they get to play with outside, the movies that are put on, the resturants they order out from...I don't know of anyone who wants to pay for a child molestor to eat McDonalds three times a week and I'll be less in favor of the death penalty when society sets prison standards at or below the poverty line, or starts exiling a whole bunch of the feral losers we pay good money to pen up and ship Red Lobster to now.

How 'bout this: Everyone on death row gets their sentence commuted to exile - then they're parachuted into the wilds of Alaska with 30lbs of dry beans, a tent, and a shovel. They can live in peace and cold as long as they like and are able to scratch out a living, but they're dead men if they turn up in town, and they'll be easily recognizable because they'll have the crime they were exiled for tattooed across their forehead.

We also need to start penning up only the truly violent criminals. The standard for incarceration should be "is there a non-consenting victim?"

Adrian

PS Say what you like, but it's a proven fact, the death penalty has the lowest recidivism rate of any form of punishment.