I'm in the position of thinking that the state should not have the power to murder its citizens and, at the same time, not losing any sleep over the idea of murderers being killed. I'm ok with bad things happening to bad people but I don't trust the state to have that power.
I'm generally a pretty left-leaning person until it comes to the issue of law and order. It's probably because I become from a deprived and difficult background and I know that crime disproportionately impacts the poorest and most vulnerable in society and that deprivation alone isn't enough to make someone into a criminal, it's usually deprivation and being a nasty little shitbag.
IMO, the reason that prison doesn't work in this country is because criminals know the police won't catch them, the CPS won't prosecute them and a judge won't send them to prison. The amount of crimes a criminal can get away with before even getting a whiff of incarceration is huge, making the risk eminently worth it.
Once in prison the worst offenders have the easiest time and still get early release even if they have committed multiple crimes while locked up. Even the most serious offenders get sent to open prisons after serving a portion of their sentence. We are told that prison is sheer misery for men accused of sex crimes against women and children but then read about Levi Bellfield planning to get married or Jordan McSweeney, the murderer of Zara Aleena, having sex with a female prison worker.
I honestly believe that the trade for men such as Kyle Clifford, Bellfield and McSweeney being allowed to live should be genuine whole life sentences with the modern equivalent of hard labour, a basic diet and no privileges in cells. A prison system where the prisoners get televisions or gaming consoles because otherwise they might riot is a prison system that has allowed the prisoners to be in charge. The principle of justice and the sheer weight of the crime having some bearing on the fate of the criminal seems to have got lost along the way.