You are an idealist powergrid, and you believe in absolutes. The problem I see is that you don't perceive what is for the greater good. Somewhere in the 70's and 80's we were infected with a selfish individualism. You would be willing to dilute/sacrifice a strong system of justice and punishment to save a few innocent lives (selfishly providing an example of your own personal fear of being one of those innocents). Thus making the I more important than the We.

And I personally wonder what is more cruel for one such innocent: The death penalty or a lifetime in a jail cell.