death penalty....for this guy???, page-19

wonderful moral friction, wondefully expressed. Congrats to both of you -if congrats from me means anything to you.
I am struck with your view, profit4, that it's almost all about power. I know that the word has been bandied about a great deal, more often about rape than about other crimes, like robbery and murder. I'm not sure, though if obtaining of power is the prime motive of every crime or even of every rape. I suggest -and it's certainly gut feeling only- that there are many other forces involved here, rather than the simple pursuit of a power of which, perhaps, he was deprived when he was young.
Even with those kids who went out hunting humans at their school grounds, with their plentiful amunition and endless supply of prey I think were not seeking this "power-over-someone-anyone."
There are emotions such as revenge, for example, or a general hatred for the world. A mental retardation, a psychological illness, caused by all sorts of reasons.
A need to be evil? I don't even know what that means.
However, had it be my daughter, I would probably want to kill the boy BUT I'd be very glad that this responsibility would be taken away from me by the legal process where, ostensibly at least, neutral, common folk, my peers in the society I live, would be the jury, and the law would have been written by wiser than me people whose aim would be to keep some order in the same society. Inner insticts are barbarian and need to be curbed by other, disinterested parties.
Parties to whom the death penalty should not be available.
In simple terms, one might even call them disingenuous, the court does not "rob" a "robber," does not "assault" a person who commits an "assault," does not "rape" a "rapist" etc, so to murder a murder is quite outside the field of being just.
A country's judicial system should rise above that.
A country's duty is to protect its citizens not to punish even, let alone to deliver the vengeance each of its citizens want.
A country's duty is to educate its every citizen.
A country's duty is to give solace to the victims of crime -without itself committing a crime.
A country's duty is to create an egalitarian society in as many fields as possible.

My sympathy certainly goes to the family of both, rapist and murderer but most importantly to the country which has sunk so low in values that these atrocities have become part of the government apparatus and thus a model for its citizens.
It's an enormous shame.