And from the other side of the house, the "higher authority" is no more an authority than it is a figment of our imagination. What if, God forbid, we all just go in a 6' hole when we're dead?

If a lunatic takes it upon himself to prematurely end lives (as Tim says, of the "societal family"), then it is our job to protect what's left of society from the same danger. That person needs to be judged now, and the threat needs to be eliminated (not released on parole due to good behavior in 15 years).

I realize I am riding a fence because it's scary that innocent people have been put to death. My solution would be that only in the most absolute and extreme cases should capital punishment be leveraged -- IOW, where evidence is absolute and it's not just a case of a prosecutor cowboy shifting his weight in his own legal system.

Has anyone read "Innocent Man" by John Grisham?