Oh god.
I would vote yes to executing them. I would also volunteer to do it myself.

Vengeance is mine, saith the lord. You can't kill these bastards any more than you can kill the other bastards, because the consequences of making a mistake. Using the power of the state to kill an innocent man is far, far worse than child rape or any other crime.

I say lock 'em up in the general population. The scumbags might actually prefer execution.

State sanctioned execution is not a viable option for any crime, no matter how that crime affects your sensibilities. As FNARF points out the system does make mistakes. There have been two cases in US history that I can think of where there is some reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendants convicted. Both cases have had many of the claims made against the convicted later proven (or reasonably argued) to be nearly impossible.

That said, I also agree with FNARFs assesment that Death may be the easy way out for someone imprisoned for child molestation.

I personally spent an evening in the Cook County DOC. We were held in an open chainlink pen called the "Hate Tank" where you await morning court or processing into the facility. One of the 45 or so people in the tank had made front page of that mornings paper for his molestation of a young girl.

This 45yr old flabby suburbanite couldnt move from standing in the middle of the open doorway in full view of the guards. The whole roomfull of people were talking to him about how they would gladly kill him. Comments like "My daughter is the same age as that little girl" "Why dont you come in the back of the pen and use the bathroom" Seeing another human urinate themselves rather than move into that room and the livid fear on his face is something Ill never forget.

He went into general population the next day. I had a coworker who was also a guard there at 26&Cal DOC. He told me that the guards get first crack at beating people like that sensless, then they give him to the other inmates.

oh sure, you'll link to dirty cartoons of the prophet, but not this?

Not to defend likely child molesters, but I've gotta say that the government has overpromised and underdelivered on quite a number of high-profile arrests, including previous child porn busts.

In other words, if what the government is saying is true, it's reprehensible. But that's a pretty big if.

Not to get all conspiracy theorist here, but Bush is at low ebb in the polls, and Gonzales is one of his closest allies...

This would indeed be pretty disgusting if true - however, when I read stuff this lurid in the press, especially when it comes to hot-button issues like pedophilia or internet porn, I seriously question whether the reporting is accurate. It seems like in cases like this, the media will run with the most lurid third-hand reports and not bother with fact-checking.

The reason, of course, why we have judges, juries, rules of evidence, etc before deciding guilt. (Not that that system can't descend into a glorified lynch mob either - review any of the "Satanic Panic" trials from the late 80s/early 90s and you'll see what I mean.)