[Mass Appeal]

You can't replace the years and relationships lost but at least they would have the chance to make knew ones and through counseling they would be able to heal the emotional scaring. I would suggest everyone go see the play Exonerated. It's about several individuals who were on death row but later released. All thier stories are horrible and point out how screwed up our system is. Most of those people I'm sure contemplated suicide at one point or the other but all have begun to go about life as before their incarceration. If asked would they rather have been executed or been given the chance to rejoin society I'm sure they would choose the later.

How is the discussion of the rightness or wrongness of the death penalty distracting from the greater picture of system reform.

If someone attacked my family or friends and lethal force was required to prevent harm to them I would most certainly do whatever was neccesary. However, after the situation was resolved and the criminal was safetly behind bars I hope I would still not carry a blood thirst for that person's life. Society needs to take the moral high ground in these situations and not stoop to the level of the killers we condem.