A few random thoughts:
State executions are no different from other methods of punishment in that they are (ostensibly) not acts of revenge. It is not possible for capital punishment to 'make us as bad as the killers' because the state is not carrying out a pre-meditated act upon an INNOCENT person who hasn't been convicted by a jury of their peers in accordance with the law.
I personally do not understand where this notion of 'It's wrong to kill people, for any reason' comes from? In certain circumstances it is not only necessary but the right thing to do in terms of the greater good. That said, I have no religious beliefs to blind me.
I do not for one second believe that perpetrators of these kind of crimes feel any remorse for their actions, at best you might get some crocodile tears but that'll only be because they didn't get away with it and have to face the consequences.
Usually when something is being banned, the old 'If it saves the life of one child, it's worth it' line is trotted out. Very effective emotional argument - can it not be applied to the death penalty or is that line just reserved for liberty-reduction legislation?
I also find it quite strange that some posters will not support capital punishment in case an innocent person is executed, but then go on to state that they'd be happy to see that same potentially innocent person deprived of their liberty and possibly tortured or killed in general population instead? Eh? Isn't that bit of a contradiction? Look, you either have the courage of your convictions or you don't - you either trust the Criminal Justice System to deliver the correct result or you don't. If you don't, there's no point in having one because no conviction will be 100% safe, ever. You can't have it both ways.
I am happy to take the chance of convicting an innocent, even if it means my own death, because I have enough faith in (or should that be contempt for?) the CJS to know that capital punishment wouldn't be invoked unless the conviction was 99% safe and even then only in the most heinous of crimes.
Frankly I find it perverse that the 'right to exist' of a child murderer is valued above that of the child victim in a society that purports to be 'civilised'. Sometime in the future, during their incarceration, the murderer(s) of Holly and Jessica will see something funny in a newspaper or TV, perhaps hear a joke and they'll smile, they might even laugh but it's something that those poor kids will never have the chance to do again.
To top it all off, I don't even like kids!
