How many people should we kill?

Governor Mitt Romney wants the state to kill people. Massachusetts hasn't killed anyone, at least not intentionally and through due process of the courts, in several decades. But Connecticut beat us to it and who wants to fall behind Connecticut?

Columnist Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe doesn't like Romney's proposal because it wouldn't kill enough people. We'd put all these safeguards in place at great expense and what would we get for all our trouble? People would use these safeguards to avoid getting killed (we can't all be lucky enough to have a Michael Ross), and then we'd be right back where we started.

Jacoby's position is abhorrent but at least its logic is clear. And he brings up a legitimate question: what's the point of spending all this money on a "foolproof" system if it means hardly anyone will get executed?

Call me a crazy Christian if you must, but I don't think it's right to kill people. And call me a simpleton if you must, but two wrongs don't make a right. The state has the right to deny liberty and privileges to killers, but taking their lives puts us on the same low moral plane.