"Death is punishable by death" - the outstanding logic of our world

I remember having this debate in our Politics class last year, sitting as the current US Supreme Court. We weren't discussing the current situation; the gang rape in India, but it was a similar scenario. Can you punish death by death and, more importantly, murder by murder? Is this the only, feasible punishment?

  You can't please everyone - that's a given. Where there are a multitude of ideas, thought-processes, ideologies, it's so very hard to know what's right. You could even argue that there is no such thing as 'right'. Every action has consequences; like eating a greasy take-away (think double portion of chips with your battered cod and a chow mien on the side with a sugared beverage of your choice) because you're hungry and your boyfriend just dumped you via text. You wake up in the morning to go to your aunt's wedding with a massive red pimple smack bang in the middle of your forehead. Did the consequence outweigh the need?

  The four men convicted of misleading and raping an Indian lady who later died of her injuries are bad people, in my opinion. You can't do that and get away with it! But...does 'getting away with it' mean being punished in anyway that does not involve them losing their lives? I think not.

What about prisons? Life in prison, I imagine, can be as miserable as torture or knowing that you're on death row (so long as you're not in the UK). I understand how important human rights are. You can't, very well, have people in prison who are denied three meals a day and exercise. But prison shouldn't an incentive. TV's, Xbox, opportunities to complete your degree - that's not what prison is about. It's not a holiday camp. They're not meant to be advertising freedom - albeit rather ironically supplied through the confinement of a cell and restriction under guards. But I suppose that may be what 'freedom' is. As law-abiding people, the general public is just that - a society governed by the law; restricted, rightly and wrongly.
  Those in prison are meant to be bad. They've broken the law. What they have done is wrong. But, then again, if there may be no such thing as right, 'wrong' may, also, not exist.
  If money is the problem, invest more in prisons. Heavy investments in the 'space race' or creating the tallest building won't help our immediate problems. Sometimes I just think countries create the buildings and wonders for show. 'Look at us, we've broken the world record!' It obscures the real problems, let's everyone live in denial and it works. Ok, we shouldn't be pessimistic and apathetic towards change but, perhaps, priorities are needed. If we're living in the 21st century and treating murder cases by murdering the perpetrators why not just lock people up in the stocks and throw rotten tomatoes at them? And I know what the answer will be: It's undignified. And is death really so much better?

  It's a toughie and things won't get solved like this (she clicks her fingers) but something needs to be done. Death isn't the answer. But who knows what is?