"Sure the guy beat up a woman, kicked an infant across the room, kidnapped the infant and then beat it up some more and threw it out the car window on the highway to die by the side of the road and he isn't insane and he isn't mentally ill, but I don't believe in the death penalty so he should be taken care of and supported by society for the rest of his life."

the way you were "restating the position" sounded nothing like the way a person who opposes the death penalty would argue it. at least, not a smart person. it sounds, and this is just me, like the way someone who is in favor of the death penalty and has a great interest in making people who are in favor of it sound like idiots who just want to ignore the glaring fact that they are totally wrong might restate it. but i'm a notoriously myopic liberal and my vagina is troubling me tonight, so, either way.