No Death Penalty For Child Rapists

The New York Times had the rather startling headline of "Justices Bar Death Penalty for the Rape of a Child" on this article.

I've always struggled with my thoughts on the death penalty. So many people with whom I agree politically on so many things are vehemently against it. There's ample evidence that it's unfairly applied, that it costs more money to kill someone in our legal system than to imprison them for life, that innocents have been killed by the State, etc. I've come to believe that my own instincts and over-developed sense of revenge are wrong, and that the death penalty is wrong.

The fact that this decision was opposed by right-wing Justices Scalia, Roberts and Thomas only further cements my decision.

BUT...

I do think it's right that The State not have the right to kill someone who has been convicted of the case of child rape.

That right rests with the parents of the child. In my world, if someone is convicted in a court of law of raping a child, it should be absolutely legal for the parents of that child to kill the rapist by any means they see fit. I'm pretty much with Ed Harris's character in Gone Baby Gone on this one. "You gotta take a side. You molest a child, you beat a child, you're not on my side. If you see me coming, you better run, because I am gonna lay you the fuck down! Easy."

So maybe I'm not *quite* over the idea of capital punishment just yet.