When the death penalty was banned, there were promises that murderers and the like would never be released. Just because the ultimate punishment was being banned didn't mean that the seriousness which vile crimes were treated would be lessened by weak sentencing.
Of course, everywhere the death penalty was banned saw murder, rape, gbh, being treated with far less severity than before because the goal posts changed. Life has become much cheaper. I don't like the idea of the state having the right to kill people because of the potential of occasionally getting it wrong but I like pro criminal attitudes even less.
The state has a responsibility to protect the victims, to protect the rest of society from becoming victims, the whole point of the criminal justice system is to make society as safe as possible from violence and disruption. There is no freedom if you can't even walk down the street safely.
When criminal rights are put to the top of the agenda, when the rights of murderers, rapists, gang members, come before the rights of the victims and their families not to have to pass them on the street and future victims and their families not to be raped, murdered, terrorised, lose family members to them, there is no justice.
Some crimes are so horrendous that the perpetrators should never be released regardless of claims of change, a genuinely remorseful, changed person would be tortured by the horrors they committed and not want to unleash more pain onto their victims by demanding release. Most of these people are incapable of rehabilitation, nobody with a shred of humanity would be capable of raping and murdering a child or adult, beating an innocent person into brain damage for 'fun', participating in a violent gang rape and they should be recognised as the evil scum they are and treated as such.
Those who take perverse pleasure in trying to justify and excuse their actions, demeaning the importance of the damage inflicted on their victims are just as evil as they are. They wouldn't be so understanding and sympathetic toward the thugs if they were the victim but they don't believe they'll ever be the victim so they don't care.
The law should not be determined by people who don't care for the rights of innocent people. Society is made up by all of the people and the majority should get to decide what type of society they'd like to live in. Most of us would prefer to live in one that protects innocents and keeps scum off the streets for as long as necessary.