> this person will never be useful to society I'm against the death penalty, but, since the alternative is most likely life in prison, this is very probably tr

> this person will never be useful to society I'm against the death penalty, but, since the alternative is most likely life in prison, this is very probably true for rightfully convicted. > My personal guess is that people like to watch for some sort of catharsis which a silent death doesn't give them, but of course I'm not necessarily in a position to judge this well. There's a very interesting documentary called "how to kill a human being". In it, Michael Portillo explores more humane ways to execute prisoners, but at the end his method is rejected by proponents as the do not want these people to die painless. So you're probably not wrong.