To me the Cheshire killings and the case Clarence Ray Allen in California illustrate the need for the death penalty in America. Unlike movie portrayals of condemned killers in movie like The Green Mile and Dead Man Walking, the killers are not innocent, victims of racism, mentally retarded or ill and prison does not stop their killing spree.
In the Clarence Allen case the offender was a wealthy White man who owned a security company but received life without parole for the murder of a woman he believed would testify against him in the burglary of a store he wa hired to provide security for. While in prison in San Quentin he convinced his cell mate to kill eight witnesses against him in the hopes that with them gone he would have an easier time appealing his case. Three people were killed and eight injured before Allen's now paroled cell mate was caught. This case shows how little prison can do to stop killers like Allen and the Cheshire murderers, so what alternative is there?