"As I said on another thread, although I am against the death penalty in principle....some crimes, like the rape and murder of small children are so unnatural and heinous that removal from the species seems the only reasonable course to take."

Alas our legal system is far from perfect akenaton. Even with all the fancy evidence gathering techniques and such these days there would still be miscarriages of justice. Innocent people would be put to death with no chance of a review turning up later evidence that would save them. That cannot and never must be acceptable. We have seen enough people wrongly imprisoned of late that would have been given the death penalty. How could we get them back? At least if they are alive behind walls they can be released and compensated (though quite how one gives an innocent person compensation I have no true idea). We must not: We cannot have a death penalty because our system is flawed and imperfect.

As for reducing prison populations. What happens when we have killed all the murderers and rapists (even if we had a 100% hit rate of true prosecutions)? Who do we start on next? Manslaughter prisoners maybe? Okay... then who next? .... until we start killing people who disagree with us, or people who are different or whatever. Back we go to those times we all now call primitive and uncivilised.

The death penalty is state sponsored murder. It is seldom humane. None of us can be free in a country that has an imperfect legal system and the death penalty. All of us, any one of us, could be the one person who is innocent who is gassed, fried, injected, hung, shot, whatever.... because the system can be wrong and it can be fixed and manipulated too. We have to err on the side of being able to make amends. How would you feel if that innocent person was you?

(All of this said in acceptance too that very few here are in favour of the death penalty)

What the Scots did was their business to do. Whether the man was guilty or innocent he has certainly become a scapegoat for people to focus their hate on and thoughts that their relatives have got some justice. But how many of those relatives would feel it justified to hold an innocent man in jail - or have him murdered - for their own sake? I doubt there would be many if any.

Likewise, demonsing the Americans and a whole people is wrong too. Not all Americans want war waged in their name. I suspect most are not vengeful. They are however, human. Revenge is a very human trait. Certainly the emotion is very strong. Not all Americans want the death sentence either. We need to be very careful and clear about what has been said above about just how diverse the Americans (and seperate States) are.

If I had lost someone on that flight I am sure I would feel I wanted some justice. Yes. I too may want that person(s) dead. The risk of getting the right people in any crime, unless actually caught in the act, must always hold a question mark of safety just in case we get it wrong. I cannot judge anyone their feelings.

mp