I am torn on the issue in general...
but as for the person not being responsible because of their childhood I am sorry I dont buy it. I know one person who grew up in a nice area with a nice family and did not turn out so nice.... but let me guess.... its because he had a good life growing up. I also know people who had a very bad childhood (As i knew them in their childhood) who were capable of growing up and becoming good people.... so I do believe even if you are brought up in horrible situations you still learn right from wrong and good from bad... I believe that each person chooses to do what they do and they need to learn from it and not get away with it. I know there is a debate on this prob. still going on in pyschology I know there was when I took a few psych classes in community college. I also dont agree with "rehab" I dont think you can just get rid of those kinds of thoughts by "training" someone... those thoughts are there, they will alaways have the images in their mind of what they did and I simply don't think that it can erase that out of someone or train them. Its one thing when you kill once, realize what you did and freak out and know its wrong (I know there are cases like this, but its still not excusable and does deserve punishment).... but killing more then once ... I am sorry but to me that shows you know what you are doing and what your intent was...... then you need to take the punishment. This is imo.