“bigheadfred” you said — “Wouldn’t it have been better to have just killed this guy 4 years ago?”
On this general idea — I say only “life for life” and that’s it. And then, it has to be proven to be so (that someone took a life). Otherwise, it’s prison time...
Really. What about torture and mutilation? If I cut your arms and legs off and put out your eyes and you live, I still deserve to live?
If I rape your daughter and then keep her a slave chained up in my basement for a few years and do all sorts of horrible things to her and then let her go and she lives, I still deserve to live?
Sorry, your litmus test sucks.