So gnu thinks the death penalty should be applied only where guilt is established "beyond a shadow of a doubt." But gnu, surely no-one has ever been legally executed in the US without some court having established (however mistakenly) that the guy was guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt? Maybe you just mean the cases where there's really REALLY no shadow of doubt?

At least LWOP allows for mistakes to be remedied after a fashion. But if Kendall thinks LWOP is a more Christian remedy than execution, I think he might be mistaken. America already imprisons a greater proportion of its population than any country on earth. Is he really calling for more prisons? And anyway, doesn't Christian philosophy allow for forgiveness? Especially in America, I would have thought, where a drunken lout can get himself elected president, if he only Finds The Lord.

The fundamental problem is that American justice falls over itself to accommodate revenge, whereas most countries in the developed world strive to get revenge out of the equation. Those who thirst for revenge are rarely sated, anyway. Even the most barbaric, cocked-up executions of the type at which the US excels, seldom bring the satisfaction and closure that's hoped for.

American justice is, in fact, a national disgrace. (And British justice is nearly as bad.) It may be very macho to ignore the causes of crime; to call for harsh punishment - why not go back to jailing kids for stealing bread? - and to shed no tears for the wrongly punished innocent. But it does not work. The most stable countries on earth jail many fewer people than the US (and the UK). They manage without capital punishment in any shape or form, and they have much lower rates of murder and other crime.