Well, okay. I believe in the concept of the "bad seed" -- you know, where folks say "All his kin were good, God-fearin', law-bidin' people who never did nothin' but good, and he went a took a chainsaw to his mother, a woodchipper to his daddy, and then got a speedin' ticket to top it all off!" Or, "He was a good kid, an honor student, taught Sunday School! How could he do this?"

You've heard those sorts of statements. You can't explain it; something is rotten inside those people.

What does society do with such people? What does society do when ANYONE has shown themself to be a danger to the social fabric?

We "cast them out" -- put them in jail. If what they have done is judged evil enough, society does the ultimate "casting out" by executing them.

We'd better be as certain of their guilt as it is possible for a human to be -- "beyond a reasonable doubt" and probably the best that fallible humanity can hope for.

I favor the "no human contact approach." So they go mad, so what? But if we MUST kill them, then let's do it quickly, humanly, quietly, and economically. I myself prefer that they be hanged, as was done in England: 13 seconds from the time the executioner took hold of the condemned to the time the vertebra was snapped in one case.

We have to get over the idea that this is "vengeance" and realize that it is something that should be done as quietly and quickly as is consistent with humaneness.

And it should be infrequent....