When it comes to capital punishment though, we have other recourse. We can inter the person in prison for life. This will both punish the person for the crime and remove them from the society in which they are deemed a threat. I also believe that prisons should be tools for rehabilitation as opposed to instruments of punishment. It would seem to me that being confined to the prison for any length of time is itself punishment, regardless of what facilities may be availible with in the prison to comfort, educate or rehabilitate the prisoners.
Capital punishment, once executed, is final. It does not allow for the person to redeem themselves. It does not allow for a series of errors of the court.
Death is ugly. Death is brutal. Death is final. Putting someone else to death is uncivilized at best and murder at worst. If we must have criminal executions, let them be on display for the public. Let the voting public examine the ugliness of death and then ask if this is justice. Death does not bring back the dead and does not undo the torment of the brutalized. Vengence is hollow and does not bring closure. True closure must come from within if at all.