The barbarity does not bother me, and I believe in an eye for an eye retribution. That said and at the risk of being flamed, my hesitancy over supporting the death penalty is
what if the jury was wrong and the condemned is truly innocent ? Too may potential Nifing’s out there as prosecuters.
I'd be willing to take that risk. There's WAY more recidivistic murderers out there than there are Nifongs.
I think Nifong was an extraordinary case in the criminal area. He was not unusual in the civil, though - many of the high profile Spitzer prosecutions were essentially convict-for-any-reason-because-I-don’t-like-your-type politically motivated prosecutions. But in terms of criminal cases, it’s harder to get away with, because there are more protections, and this is why Nifong was forced to back down and is now looking at charges himself. He had to corrupt the entire state, including the medical examiner, to support him, and as things are now in the US, it’s hard to pull this off.
The point is to keep the system honest, but at the same time not make it so cumbersome that we can never get hideous people (like the creep here in Florida who raped a little girl and buried her alive) out of our world.