I am not so much for the death penalty as I am against abolishing it, for the following reason:

The same mind-set that believes the death penalty is wrong is the same one that is permissive on violent crime in general. When a society abolishes the death penalty it is saying that it will also choose to show a depraved indifference to the right to life and safety of the law-abiding majority of citizens. It has never proven possible to have a society with no death penalty that otherwise chooses to be tough on crime, because the ideological and sociological forces that are most ardent in their pursuit of abolishment are always — without exception — the same ones that bend over backwards (or forwards) for the “rights” of those among us who are vicious predators.

America had no death penalty from the late 60′s to the early 70′s. Crime soared, victims and their families suffered in multiple ways, and were treated with contempt by the justice system and its social engineering allies.

In Europe, the situation is even more perverse. Not only is their no death penalty for vicious, depraved takers of life, but there are officially-sanctioned provisions for taking the lives of inconvenient innocents. It is no coincidence that the mentality that would sentence a confessed cannibal to a manslaughter-length sentence will decide that an elderly person be put to sleep to free up a hospital bed in a nationalized health care system.