Originally Posted by jillio

I couldn't agree with you more, Oceanbreeze. The details of individual cases only serve to cloud the bigger issue.

I will not pretend to understand what it is to loose a family member through a violent death such as murder. I have not experienced that; however, I do have great empathy for those that have. It would only be natural to want to transfer the suffering that one endures as a result onto what is perceived as the cause of that suffering. However, the desire to make another feel the pain that we are experiencing, no matter how normal or how understandable, is still, by all definition, a desire for revenge. We want to impose on another the pain that we are experiencing with the mistaken belief that we will be relieved of our pain by imposing it on someone else. Does it work? Decidedly not. Our loved one is not returned to us. The situation is not changed. It does not take us back in time, and reverse the situation. It simply compounds it.

We tell our children, on a daliy basis, that if someone treats you unfairly, or badly, it is not appropriate or justifiable, to act the same way. "Be the bigger person", we tell them. "Take the high road." "Do not bring yourself down to their level." And then we turn around and support the idea that it is perfectly acceptable to kill in retaliation for killing. That is contradiction and hypocracy.

And the simple fact remains that our system is flawed. Until we can be absolutely, 100% sure of guilt in any situation; and our system proves that it is subject to human error; we cannot be certain that we have not executed in error.