> Seems to me that killing your wife is more treacherous than killing
> strangers, if we are going to get into lesser evilism analysis, so it is not
> clear that the Boyd case would be a better rallying platform than the
> Williams case.
A person who kills a stranger for financial gain, the thrill of it, or to gain "criminal credibility" is far more likely to repeat that crime than the person who kills their spouse in an angry or jealous rage. If the idea of the death penalty is to keep the public safe from predatory individuals (harm reduction) then William's execution fits that objective better than Boyd's would.
Except for extreme sociopaths who kill for pleasure, age is a large factor. The person who kills at age 24 for criminal reasons is extremely unlikely to repeat that crime at age 45. You could keep society pretty safe from such individuals by simply incarcerating them until age 45 or 50 and then releasing them. Providing a support network to re-integrate released prisoners would do much good too but in our "tough guy" culture that isn't given much priority.
I don't know about the statistics for sexual predators and age related crimes. They constitute an extremely small percentage of murders.
John Thornton