I'm talking about the Brevik's, the Holmes', the Mansons of the world. Hell, corrupt politicians, dictators, and warlords that have killed millions as a result of their actions. String em all up.

I understand your point of view completely.

But look at it this way, all those people decided it was well within their right to explicitly take the life of another human. Having a government that says it can pick and choose who lives or dies is an extremely dangerous thing. It's open to abuse and history has shown this.

Even at a low level many cops can be judge, jury and executioner on the spot because they know a precedent has been set when it comes to the lack of repercussions for many cop deaths.

Even in a country as forward-thinking as the US the execution system has been far from streamlined like many people think, the amount of botched excecutions

42. Sept. 15, 2009. Ohio. Romell Broom (pictured, after execution attempt). Attempted Lethal Injection. Efforts to find a suitable vein and to execute Mr. Broom were terminated after more than two hours when the executioners were unable to find a useable vein in Mr. Broom’s arms or legs. During the failed efforts, Mr. Broom winced and grimaced with pain. After the first hour’s lack of success, on several occasions Broom tried to help the executioners find a good vein. “At one point, he covered his face with both hands and appeared to be sobbing, his stomach heaving.[64] Finally, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland ordered the execution to stop, and announced plans to attempt the execution anew after a one-week delay so that physicians could be consulted for advice on how the man could be killed more efficiently.[65] The executioners blamed the problems on Mr. Broom’s history of intravenous drug use. As of Oct. 1, 2014, Mr. Broom remained on Ohio’s death row.

This is all if the person is dead-to-rights guilty, we havent even touched upon when the death penalty has been used against the mentally ill or extremely dubious cases. A lot of executions went through because of political pressure to remain "tough on crime". From low levels to the highest levels we see routine incompetence at administering capital punishment in one of the most democratic and progressive countries in the world, we can only assume abuses and poor administration is far more rife in less well of countries.