"Strongly in favor of it but it's a terrible idea."

I think that's brilliantly put. Sums up the truth that just because we might want something to happen, that doesn't mean it's the right thing to happen.

It seems to me so clear that it does terrible damage to a society to have killing done in its name, that there'd have to be an overwhelmingly strong reason to go against that. And that just doesn't ever appear in these discussions. The suggestion that somehow it makes it better for the relatives of a murder victim just doesn't seem to make any kind of sense to me. I try to imagine myself in that situation, and it just doesn't work.

And I find puzzling how there are always some people who come up with these fantasies about revenge killing, and it reads as if they are enjoying them.

All in all I'm profoundly glad that this is behind us in the continent I live in. And I'm very happy that when they had a referendum in Ireland a couple of years on whether the ban should be included in the constitution, the vote went in favour of that. That's what I'd expect in a truly civilised country, and I'm sure there are at least some other countries where ordinary people would vote that way. Maybe some day even England. Maybe even the USA in time.