I am not blaming the system for people committing crimes - they are aware of what they are doing when they do it. My point is that as long as the death penalty is in place, there is the likelihood that mistakes will be made and people will die as a result. If a mistake is made and someone is jailed in error - that can be rectified - they can be freed. Death, however, is irreversible and reading the true cases written about by several reputable authors, and having some first hand experience - those mistakes do happen. I agree that in most cases, we are way too soft on criminal behaviour but there are lost of wider issues that need to be addressed - punishment is the loss of freedom itself - why then the need for additional, cruel and inhuman behaviour (for instance, serving breakfast and lunch at bizarre times to disorientate people). Jail is not there to gratify the sadistic tendencies of those who run them - it is there to contain people who have broken the law and had their freedom removed. It is not up to the jailers to take revenge and it is perverse that anyone would want to see a fellow human suffer. Nor is it up to the state to kill people who haven't committed a crime that is punishable by the death penalty. One of my best friends comes from Texas and has decided to live in Germany to end his days as he cannot tolerate the neo-conservatism that prevails in the USA today. He is a 82, a respected concert pianist, author and journalist. He is a learned, well respected man who has gained the Bundesverdienstkreuz, (similar to a knighthood) for establishing and continuing cultural links between Germany and the US. He went back to the USA in 1982 and couldn't stand the climate that prevailed, so returned to Germany.