Why is the government into "teaching a lesson"? If somebody gets killed, the killer should lose their life, not rot in jail where, as before stated, they have to be cared for (therefore costing the jail/gov't money), and they have a chance at escaping! Screw the government, I think Court should be each side gets 5 minutes to explain, then the jury votes. Boom. Done.
Ninja Edit: Yeesh, my grammar sucked right there. [\personalgrammarnational socialist]