I like living in states that allow me to defend myself with death if need be. I can and will shoot to kill anyone robbing my home while I am there. Theft of property is one issue, fear of the unknown (intentions of the robber to not get caught by silencing you) is another. I would happily let my property go, but I will not believe a robber saying he just wants my stuff and I won't be hurt. I know we execute people that are innocent of the crime, but they look so guilty given all the other stuff in their life usually. I am not advocating they deserve it based on other crimes, but the jury killed those people, not me. I trust that overall juries are more right than wrong. In the case of the Duke lacrosse team, the prosecutor deserves a prison sentence for using the law to "kidnap a person (s) from society." I hold people of authoritative stature more accountable in my opinion. The courts are not perfect, and in my mind we have too many laws which make more criminals. I will say this about Texas, to my best recollection. If you kill someone in Texas and there are at least 3 unrelated witnesses, you lose your appeals and head straight to the front of the pack. I may be wrong, but this seems right to me. I hate getting into the debate about the death penalty because it has so many "well in this case I woulds." In my mind, if you are pr oven innocent after conviction and people purposely put you there, "they" deserve that sentence. If more people would defend themselves with weapons and deadly force, or if others would come to their aid and kill if necessary, I believe we would have a lot less criminals thinking they could just do whatever they wanted. I will agree that the death sentence doesn't deter as much crime as it should, but that is because of the chance the people might get off, or underage. If it didn't make it to trial, there is just the explanation of why there is a dead guy on your floor. I opened a can of worms probably, so I will say this to show I am not completely stupid. I understand this too would have a bunch of idiots shooting first and then asking later if they could. I am for "only" unquestionable acts stopped by the would be victim. I know it isn't the polices job to protect you, you have to protect you. They show up once called or if they happen to see something happening, because they can't be in two places at once and do not have ESP. It seems no one wants to help another out in today's society, and that is scarier than a prison sentence to me. I am just saying, life in prison for some is better than they had it before, and that is just wrong on so many levels. How many people get free health care, cable, education, etc? If I was convicted and had the choice of life in prison or death, I am secure in my beliefs enough to take the chair.