[LandonM]

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5) Is murder a harsher punishment than elimination of freedom for the rest of ones life?

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I would say that it isn't. But I think that life in prison serves to do nothing except remove the person from society. The death penalty does the same thing except cheaper(if the person is relatively young to begin with). And the costs for capital punishment could be decreased even further by limiting what I feel to be the absurd appeal system in place in this country.

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The Justice system in this country is far, far more absurd than our appeal system. It's a horribly ugly truth that no one understands until they have a chance to experience it first hand.

My conception of the legal system was that of your typical upwardly mobile, law abiding, hard working white guy until a few bored agents with nothing better to do decided to undertake a few "virtue tests" to see who would pass and who would fail (better known as "entrapment" in every other country in the free world except this one, where we allow the government to argue the predisposition of the accused AFTER the fact.)

On the issue of the death penalty, I've seen the best and worst of what this society has to offer, and I can say without reservation that there are indeed people who should be put to death (pursuant to my own conceptions of justice). With that said, the system we charge with effecting justice is about as flawed as those people who we expect it to impart justice upon, so in that sense, it's like a boxing match between house cats.