I think of corporal and capital punishment in terms of the greater good. Imperfection is a given and errors do occur and that's why a typical execution takes over a decade to happen; the justice system in any reasonable country should afford ALL possible grounds for appeals.

There are people who have shown such callousness and viciousness to their fellow mankind that they have given up the right to live amongst us. I don't think Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance, would have ever stopped killing and eating people. Rather than put a guy like this in therapy for the rest of his life and assume the risk of him committing another kill & eat, put him down and be done with it... for the greater good of the rest of us.

The century we're living in is not relevant to me; what's relevant to me is whether that society is civilized or barbaric... of which we've had both throughout all centuries. Some may view corporal punishment as barbaric... others may view the LACK of it as barbaric. I would SURELY not want to be wrongly caned... so... therefore I better behave and not even give the impression of impropriety. Does that not make us more civilized?