I'm also pragmatic, but my biggest concern is resources.
Why waste valuable resources on someone who contributes nothing to civilization for the sake of some arbitrary form of psychological punishment? All we're really doing is draining our own pockets to keep 'em alive. Me, I'd rather bury them and move onto the next problem than worry about containment, security, food, logistics, etc.
American justice and prison systems are an absolute joke - we have more prisoners than any other country in the world.
In the US at least, the death penalty is often costlier than life imprisonment, as you have to pay for all those pesky appeals.
And about the War on Drugs... all you damn hippies need to quit smokin' weed and get jobs already!
*wanders off grumbling about kids these days*
