Another notch

Professor Kim has much of the relevant round-up material on the Tookie Williams execution.

Frankly, I don't quite understand how anyone can justify capital punishment. The court system is full of serious flaws (see, for example, Illinois); the vast majority of criminological studies show it's hardly a deterrence for other criminals; the legal process to obtain an execution is exorbitantly expensive, typically more than it would cost to lock someone up for life; it's morally dubious for the state to claim a right to kill its citizens -- even if certain citizens gravely harm society as a whole -- when there are more humane and effective solutions readily at hand...this list could go on, obviously.

About the only reason I can see for keeping the death penalty around is vengeance. And, gosh, we all know how Americans need their vengeance now, don't we?