Seeing as how we are talking about killing our children I thought I should chime in here. I worked for twenty years with children in Residential Treatment Centers here in Wisconsin. I have done training for other people who work with children at many different levels. Local, state, international. We do not have the death penalty in Wisconsin and I am happy for that. I have as George said looked into the eyes of these children many would have us kill. A lot are not going to change no matter what you do. It is important to deal with them clearly. One way is to kill them. Sends a clear message as to how we will deal with the next one. Another way is to provide them with clearly defined structure. Unfortunately no where in a free society are we so clearly defined. Another way is to escort them through the daily pace of life in a community. This to me makes the most sense. Kids are not very articulate so even if they can tell you what the problem is it may be hard for us to understand. Without some one to help them fight off the deafening images of how tough they are because they have killed someone they will be lost. I am not claiming It will matter for all of the kids in our country. I am saying there are a lot of kids between honor student and hardened criminal. Each group has its murderers and leaders. Giving children a chance beyond the death penalty is good with me.
In case you haven't noticed my flaming liberal let me make it more clear. I think as long as we put more money into corporations than we do into our children we will continue to reap what we sow.
I support the death penalty 100% for adults without mitigating circumstances. Like DNA evidence that says they could not have committed a crime. Or is it worse to have a jury with the inability to understand what the Dna evidence tells them.

I have to go smoke a PAM then take a nap.