It is the duty of society to protect ALL of its citizens.
Even those who, by their actions, have placed themselves
outside the law. Whether or not you believe in the death
penalty, it is fairly well agreed upon that the only entity
that has a right to kill with due deliberation is the state.

I don't see why the government should protect people who intentionaly murder anybody. It's wrong to cold bloodedly murder someone, and should the public decide to return the favor, well the government should stay out of it. The bastards killed somebody, and that cannot be changed, they should be punished, if not by the government, then by the people.

and another point. had the killers been adults, they would have gotten life in prison, or possibly the chair, but they weren't, they were kids, but everybody assumes children cannot make descisions of their own, if it's because they can't make the right choices, then why are there as many adult-murders as there are?

I think children and adults should be punished equally if murder was involved. But if it was a petty crime, such as theft, the punishment should be lowered, yes; reckless and thoughtless descisions were made, but the taking of a life was not involved. But in this case, the children intentionally murdered an infant, it may have been thoughtless, but it involved a death, and all people -- regardless of age(excluding peoples under 5) should know better than that.