Reply #24: i think your reasoning is spot on....

[sojourner]

the thing that confounds me is how those who support the DP can tolerate the possibility of an innocent person being put to death.

the idea of "leveling the cosmic scales" would allow that the scales are leveled by the death of another, who ever that other may be. i think people like it better when the "other" seems like a bad person - then even if they might be innocent, the argument can be made that they aren't contributing to the good of society and thus we are okay (better, really) without them.

someone on Mike Malloy's show brought that point up. it really resonated with me. (the idea that "someone must pay" -- the fact that we measure the relative value of the lives is something that occurred to me after thinking on what he said)