I always find it ironic many of the same people that find the death penalty abhorrent, go right around and condone torture (enhanced interrogation, for you deniers). And where is it written you are malevolent for putting someone to death, yet saintly for imprisoning them for the remainder of their life?
The argument that the system is flawed (the legal process for determining guilt or innocence), so you shouldn't have the death penalty seems to completely dismiss the fallacy of locking someone in prison for the rest of their life, despite their innocence. I'm also struggling with this notion that we should trust the correction system to keep people imprisoned, yet turning right around and claiming that determination of guilt or innocence is faulty.
The argument that the U.S. legal system is so convoluted it costs more to put someone to death than it takes to keep them in prison is true. But, even if it were not true, does the cost dismiss the justification? If it were cheaper to kill them than it would be to keep them in prison, would that somehow justify the act of putting them to death? What i'm trying to say here is: don't present an argument that is not justification, but accounting.
All this stated, i think it is far more important to realize these moral arguments fall flat if you focus on the present function of the correction system in the U.S.. It is, in fact, geared to be a system of punishment, not correction. But, the punishment provided is an education in criminal practice, sexual depravity, racism, gang-oriented survival, and a breakdown in civil restraint.
Considering this, you should also consider that the U.S. prison systems are horrendously overcrowded and the means to resolve this is to shorten sentences and release criminals back into society after they learned all these great things while in prison. Consider, as well, the vast majority of escalation in violent crimes and gang activity in Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama are attributed to ex-cons, people who served prison sentences in the U.S..
For many, the threat of prison is not a strong deterrence, but the threat of death is. As a whole, people fear death more than anything else. Death is the great unknown and that which is most unknown is most feared. A scheduled death, one determined by the courts, is far more scary due to loss of control in one's own destiny. This is not to say that the notion of imprisonment is not a deterrence, for it is, but in a country where prison is not all that scary, additional deterents are needed.
