>In fact, Amerika is a crime-ridden society, much more so than any other
>developed nation, so that threat is not completely irrational.
Not exactly true. U.S. murder rates are high by world standards, but property crimes are in line with most other First World countries. So the focus should be on violence rather than "crime" - and capital punishment is as much part of the pervasive violence as is homicide. Ditto our huge and busy military, whose violence often blows back home (e.g. Tim McVeigh, who buried bodies with a bulldozer in Iraq). We've got a long history of killing here.
Doug