Being born and raised in a country without capital punishment it is hard for me to accept that such a thing seems necessary. Of course, if I ever came into an extreme situation like, let's say my wife (we are not married since at least I don't believe in such a thing, but I think of her as my wife nevertheless) would be raped or killed, probably I would crave revenge, too. But would I want the criminal to be executed? At first, probably. After some calming down, I think not. Given the possibility of an error in the investigation of the case, it is possible that the wrong one is sentenced. So if he is executed anyway, and some time later, the real criminal would be found, another innocent life had been taken, the psychological effect on me would be disasterous.
So my proposal is as follows: The convicted should be imprisoned, life sentence clearly, and by that I don't mean what we have today, a jail where he has relatives visiting, TV, radio, a library, three ot more meals a day, a workout room and I don't know what else and, worse still, the chance of being paroled after 20 or 25 years and walking out as a free man (or woman). I mean the real thing. A cell with a mattress and a privy, enough water and food to keep him alive and, perhaps, paper and pen (his/her thoughts might be interesting research material). Point. Nothing else. Jail, at least for such cases, should be real punishment. No parole.
I think that should be nearly as crime-preventing as the death penalty (the criminal has the possibilty to execute himself, if he wishes) and has the advantage that a later found error could be corrected.
What do you think?