the state's interest in public justice is to keep folks (families/clans/neighborhoods/etc) from seeking it privately which results in general chaos (like romeo n' juliet) - if some jackass killed my daughter by doing some stupid shit like chucking blocks off a cliff i'd be bent on wrecking him if the state didn't do it for me - i spent a bunch of time trundling shit in the cathedral range recently, which is damn remote, and i still made sure there was no one in the firing line when i threw shit and if i'd messed up and had killed someone anyway i could hardly bitch about getting nailed for it, no?