Capital punishment

I agree, but didn't we recently reach a consensus that the only people that deserve the death penalty are those who can't be rehabilitated? Isn't that a bit irrelevant to the current discussion?

"Except that housing them for all of their life is probably (I don't know for sure on that one) more expensive, and definitely less humane." - Land Of Gold

Less expensive, actually, once you take into account the appeals process (removing that might increase the risk of innocents being killed) and is NOT "less humane" in and of itself. The only reason for it to be any less humane would be if you assume they would rather be executed than be kept in jail for the rest of their lives. In that case, giving them the option of killing themselves is a better idea than killing them. o.o

Well, until we can control the amount of prison rape, keeping people in prison is pretty much cruel and unusual at the highest level.

^^^ What part of it is irrelevant? If our current methods of rehabilitation don't work, wouldn't more people than there could be if it were done properly end up failing to be rehabilitated, and thus under this definition deserving of the death penalty?

Would you prefer some disgruntled sympathizer of the victim doing it instead?

Well, yes.

@Tomu: Its been established that its nearly impossible to control the prisons and its often jokes, in varying degress of seriousness, that the prisoners run the prisons. The problem with life without parole is that there is nothing we can legally do to increase their punishment or restrict their social network.