Epic, I am so sorry about your kitty.

Speaking as the relative of two police officers (still alive), I do believe I'd still speak out against the death penalty in the horrible chance either of them were killed on duty.

(I also disagree strongly with laws that call for the death penalty automatically for cop killing. They're humans, no better or worse than the rest of us, and when a cop goes bad or is horribly mistaken or escalates a situation to lethal force first, there's room to mitigate penalty.)

If I were the relative of slain cop in the Davis case, I'd want a full re-investigation and trial. I would lay awake nights wondering if the real killer got away and the wrong man was put to death.

My understanding is that one of the men convicted of killing James Byrd was also put to death last night, and some of Byrd's family are still against the death penalty.

Unlike with the Davis case, the man in Texas admitted the crime and said he would have murdered Byrd again if it had to do it all over.

The world is a better place without him in it and yet, I don't believe in capital punishment. I do wonder what CP would look like if we only performed state sanctioned murder against those who confessed and showed no remorse.

I do believe I'd still speak out against the death penalty in the horrible chance either of them were killed on duty.

I was just responding to this from Theo.

I don't believe allowing the government to execute an evil person makes the world a better place.

In first world problems, I just realized that my cat peed on the shoulder of the dress I am wearing! I have to spend 10 more hours in this dress.

Thanks, Sox. I would never have noticed that myself, what with all the time I (don't) spend on Twitter. Password changed, although I have no idea how they hacked/spoofed me.

Shit! I just remembered I need to take my stupid car in to the shop, and I said I'd take it in at 7. Why can't I put my insomnia to better use? Why do I just feel like crap raked over?

Shortly after I started law school, two acquaintances of mine were kidnapped just off campus. One was let go shortly afterward, the other was murdered. The guy that did it was caught a few days later. The story (never confirmed) was that he led the police to the body in exchange for the DA not requesting the death penalty.

In my guts, I wanted to tear the guy to pieces. Even several years later, just before I graduated, I freaked out while watching an on-campus TV production involving an assault of a woman on a different part of the campus. But my head recognized that hearts like mine are the reason we have a justice system. (Which isn't to say the legal system is perfect. But at least it's an effort to get away from the personal vendetta as justice. And it works well enough often enough that I wouldn't want to toss it out entirely to replace it with something completely different.)

As for the death penalty, my head can't get to complete opposition. Some crimes are so horrendous that I can't think of any other appropriate punishment (John Wayne Gacy comes to mind). At the same time, I have very deep problems with the way it's applied in this country. Others have mentioned above the unequal imposition of the death penalty. I also cringe whenever I see/hear people cheering an execution -- the death penalty should be rare, reserved only for the most horrendous of crimes. And when done, it should be done soberly and reluctantly -- after all, even if the death penalty is appropriate in a particular case, a life is being ended. And that means a person is taken away from others -- parents, children, siblings -- who may have done nothing wrong on their own.

And an issue that's being raised some now but should have been raised more strongly a long time ago. There's no way to make amends to a wrongly convicted person who's been executed. It's possible to compensate someone who's been wrongly imprisoned -- maybe not perfectly, but at least something can be done. Once someone's dead, there's no way to make up for any errors. And as much as the people who cheered Rick Perry don't want to face it, innocent people do get convicted. Humans aren't perfect.

Sophia, can you get a little club soda to clean up the shoulder?

People try to hack my Cashmere twitter name all the time. I thought the rapper from Brooklyn wanted to buy it but he never came through.

I'm against the death penalty on a number of grounds. It's not fairly applied, it's not a deterrent and it costs more money to put someone to death than it does to incarcerate them for life. Also if there is the slightest chance you might execute an innocent person, why do it?