I’d do it without hesitation or remorse. I’d do it for a close friend, or even a drinking buddy. The only thing that would stop me is fear of getting caught.
Oh, I feel I should clarify my own post. I’m saying if I had time to sit around and think about revenge I would not have revenge.
If the person was within shooting/stabbing/clubbing range at the same time as offing my husband, they wouldn’t be alive to be acquitted. They would die a brutal but rapid death. Sitting around talking about compassion is one thing, but being in the heat of the moment surrounded by all that totally violent instinct is another. I would kill the sonofabitch and feel guilty later.
But a murderer is a murderer, regardless of motivation. I don’t support the death penalty because I believe that the taking of another’s life is never justified. I don’t think poorer of those who say they would take the revenge, but I really just don’t understand how that emotion could overtake an otherwise good person’s most basic morality away, just like that. How do you make yourself their judge, jury, and executioner and claim it’s right, or even that it feels good? I don’t think that it would feel good, not even for a second, and would most likely destroy my own life even further than it was when Loved One was murdered.
You seem to think that if someone managed to get off on a technicality after killing my wife or child, they would be alive to be jogging.
I guarantee you, things would happen. No question about it.
What olivesmarch4th said. I had a chance to take vengeance on someone once. I had imagined doing it for months, but I had also imagined the aftermath (prison, being lost to my family), and I guess the dish was just too cold when the opportunity presented itself.
Plus, there were witnesses.
Having gone outside for a cigarette, and thinking about this for a few minutes, this question could possibly be a candidate for GQ. Are some of us “hard-wired” for revenge genetically? As soon as I read the question, the answer was obvious to me. Kill the bastard. Then I read the responses, and they were all over the place. I don’t understand all of the forgiveness. Any thoughts?
I would definately take revenge. Sometimes killing is justified, despite what some people would have you believe.
ETA: And yes, if I am ever killed, I would hope that someone would avenge me.
I didn’t answer earlier - but I wouldn’t take revenge if someone killed a loved one. I’m sure I’d want to, but I’m just as sure I wouldn’t. I’d hate myself if I did something like that - I think killing for revenge is barbaric. And if I were killed, I wouldn’t even want the bastard who killed me to get the death penalty, let alone be killed by family or friends.
Yeah. He needed killing. I could buy that defense, in a lot of cases. Dahmer comes to mind.
Dead meat.
I wouldn’t feel better about my loved ones being dead, but I could not tolerate their unrepentant murderer walking around.
Then I would probably turn myself in.
After thinking about this for a good bit:
I’d probably haul the car over and drag him into the backseat, and then put him in the nearest hospital. And then go sit by the side of the road and cry really, really hard. Maybe be sick.
I really don’t think I could do it.
Hey, wouldn’t it be weird if you turned yourself in and then you got off on a technicality? Would you kill yourself then? 
Guy would have so many tire marks they’d never be able to do an open casket funeral. On the plus side, I’d probably be willing to furnish a top notch onsite cremation. Far as I’m concerned some people are broken and it’s just a mercy to everyone including them to put 'em out of their/our misery. The world would be a better place and I’m more than happy to be an instrument of karma in this instance. I’d also shoot my own dog if she savaged a child–only difference would be that I’d cry about the dog.
It’s not murder, it’s taking out the garbage before it makes somebody sick.
If it were my wife he killed, I would do nothing. Not because I don’t love her, but because my first responsibility is to my child, and the last thing he needs is for me to go to jail. He already lost one parent, I can’t have him lose another.
If it were my son he killed… then I’ll kill him without hestation. As I said, my first responsibility is to my child.
I wouldn’t have to resist the urge to kill him. I’d have to resist the urge to tie him up and drag him somewhere where I could keep him confined, and torture him for a very long period of time. The latter would be more risky in terms of me getting caught, so I might be hesitant to do it. But I’d want to, very badly.
Exactly - that, and the truly mentally ill perpetrator, are situations where I can imagine NOT taking vengeance.
But aside from that, I’d have to act. The rage I would feel would be all-consuming. There’s no escaping that anger, I’d have to let it out.
THEN I’d be ready to think about forgiveness.
Splat.
I think it wouldn’t be inability to control myself. I actually think that killing him would be right thing to do. If I go to jail for that - ok. But he’s a cold blooded murdered. Who took conscious decision to kill innocent and defenseless people for petty reasons. He needs being jailed. If because of faulty law he is free, he needs killing. It’s a just thing to do. If law says it’s illegal to kill him and I need punishment - ok, it’s price I’m ready to pay. I know he won’t kill no more. And revenge - it’s just an extra.
Oh, it’s also matters if there are other loved ones alive - if I had child to care for, I might resist my urge for killing. Because I’m needed more elsewhere than in jail.
I wouldn’t kill him. I’d go so far as to make sure he was forever physically incapable of even killing himself, which is something he would desire very much after we had met.
He never would have lived to be out running in the first place. If I hadn’t had the oppurtunity to kill him immediately after the trial, I would have hunted him down like a lion stalks an antelope. The OP’s scenario is basically a silver platter.
I also wanted to add; I would also have no problem going to jail for the crime of killing him either. I realize my killing him is just as illegal as what he had done. I’d basically have my lawyer just let the jury decide my fate, maybe they’d take it easy on me given the circumstances, but I wouldn’t expect they do so.