How does being against the legalized death penalty equate to NOT sympathizing with crime victims???

I doesn't. We ALL sympathize with crime victims. It's so ridiculously obvious that why would it need to be said? We are all deeply upset and outraged at crimes perpetrated on innocent people.

The only thing you are disturbed about, Guest, is that we do not share your emotional need for vengeance on the criminal to the extent that you would like us to.

I do not believe that vengefullness is a helpful emotion. It's the emotion of a simple-minded animal that cannot think, but can only react to its own pain by lashing out at someone else. That's what causes most violent crime in the first place. That and fear or desperation or some other uncontrolled emotion.

They who believe in vengeance want to BE like the very criminals they are upset with...creatures who do not think, who do not empathize, who are too stupid to stand in another person's shoes for a moment, who simply react violently and strike out.

Yup, that's a lizard-brain all right. No imagination. No perception of the other's pain. No mercy. Such is the nature of the born killer. If you lust to kill the criminal, then you yourself have taken on the mind of the criminal at that moment, whether or not you have technically broken any laws in so doing.

For such, it takes far more courage not to kill. And far more wisdom.