But I don't think anyone here would want a death sentence without sufficient evidence of a conviction. A conviction must come first, then the punishment, and we're all on board with that - so there is no lynching that you're citing. Mercyshooter and I would like to see a death sentence for extreme rape cases, at least I do. The reason for that is that in cases of extreme rape, the victim not only suffers all her life, but frequently in such cases alters the very course of her life forever. Some become permanently depressed, others resort to suicide, others cannot work for a long time and thus ruin their careers and end up poor all their lives, etc. Their lives are ruined, and even if they did recover, they'd recover decades later - 20 years is not out of the question for extreme rape. 20 years is a long time to throw away one's life, especially if one didn't deserve it.
As I've argued, we allow death when it comes to abortions, and that would be the death of innocent human beings. Why does society in general not think that this is barbaric? Why not allow death for people who do evil things? Why does society think that putting such people to death is barbaric? If Adolf Hitler were captured, and he was responsible for the death of millions of people, how could anyone even suggest that he should not give up his life?
My answer is that death is part of life and that people don't have and never did have a sovereign right to life - as evidenced by the fact that some people would take the life of someone else at will, and we often can't stop them. The least we could do is give them what they deserve.