Further, some argue against the death penalty because they say that if we kill the killers we become like them, making no distinction between action and motive. Many more seem to favor the death penalty simply out of a raw lust for vengeance as can be witnessed by the carnival-like atmosphere at the more notorious executions. Even more people, it seems, are dulled by post-modern intellectual laziness, whereby each of these motivations has some foothold in their psyches. As the contending ideas struggle unchecked, the individual's passion is suppressed until some extremely horrendous act quickens the emotions. The questions of this debate pose no problem for those with a Biblical worldview, as they are given protection and comfort on every side by God's eternal decree.
Disparity is caused by humanistic value judgments concerning the badness of a particular murder.
Given the witness of modern forensics, we can be more just in conviction than ever. Inevitably there will be mistakes, but we must strive for perfection. Vengeance is the Lord's, not ours. Our only duty is to carry out His decrees in as just and humane a manner as possible. And to make personal benefit a variable in this calculation, as the Governor of Missouri did, is nothing more than a modern version of human sacrifice whereas the life of the condemned hangs in the balance of personal interests.