hmmm, somehow I missed this entire thread. I just wanted to chime in and say this discussion is very thought provoking and some good points are being made.

The one thing I have to add is that while I can find support for the death penalty in logic and philosophy, execution is not something that sits well with my soul. There is something within me that finds that taking the life of a defenseless person absolutely sickening, far more so than the taking the life of an aggressor who is attempting to do violence. By that I mean I could probably take someone's life who was entering my home to kill or do great harm to my family, but if that same person were captured and disarmed I don't see myself being able to throw the switch even knowing what the intentions were.

What makes this video (which I haven’t seen) so gruesome to me is the thought of taking a defenseless person’s life and then making a spectacle of that act.