Swift Justice

I was reading in the NYT on-line that Ronnie Lee Gardner , a convicted murderer from Utah, was finally executed today. It appears that this was note worthy because Mr. Gardner elected to be executed by firing squad. Utah is the only state that allows execution in this matter but has now eliminated this option for future executions. I highlighted the word finally above because the crime he committed was in 1985 when he was 24 years old. He was in court for a hearing on a previous murder charge but managed to break free of his security guards for a moment and kill one of them. He was immediately recaptured. His picture appears in the dictionary under " Ultimate White Trash". But I digress. 
In China Mr. Gardner would have been executed within 2 months of that court date in 1985. He would have been tried, it would have been reviewed, a date would have been set and the deed done.  We all love living in the US and enjoy it's freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The 1st and 5th amendments to the constitution contain the core values by which we live. The 6th amendment allows for a swift and speedy public trail. This, of course, is important to protect anyone from being incarcerated for too long for an unjust cause. However, it often seems that swift and justice in America is an oxymoron.
You may have read about a series of attacks on school children by unstable individuals here in China. There have been 5 cases in the last 6 months. In all the cases but one, children and teachers were killed. These were horrible and senseless acts and strike at every person's basic idea of humanity. Each individual was immediately apprehended by the police and there were many witnesses to these crimes. The average time between capture and execution was 7 weeks. There was a trail and all the evidence was presented. There was no doubt that these people committed their accused crimes. Now think of Mr. Gardner of Utah. It took 25 years to accomplish the same result as it took in China. Twenty-five years of taxpayer money to house, feed and continually adjudicate his case. Twenty-five years of lack of closure for the victim's families. 
America is a great place to live and I am all for saving lives and rehabilitating those who want to work on improving themselves but sometimes we can learn important lessons from other countries.