Doesn't religion approve of the death penalty though?
Well depends on the religion but the abrahamic faiths do approve along with it being mainstream in almost every civilization before the 1960s era of pozzing it out.
It's a little complicated. We're supposed to follow the laws of the land, so if death penalty is one then it seems we're to follow it. But on the other hand, Jesus spared a whore from death for breaking the law, and we're supposed to follow his example.
But the Bible also mentions reprobates, people lost entirely to sin, essentially beyond salvation, so I figure certain extreme crimes would suggest someone is a reprobate and therefore killing them isn't robbing them of a chance of forgiveness.
So, in the end I just don't really know for sure. I guess I'm at least for it in certain cases, where we know the accused is guilty and it's an especially evil crime.
I'm in favor of the death penalty, if someone commits a triple homicide or something in cold blood then I think their free trial of life should expire.
The three usual arguments I see against the death penalty are:
Innocent person might be convicted and sentenced to death
Appeals and trials cost more than just sentencing them to life
Method of executions are inhumane or constantly botched
Against arguments one and two, I'd say implement the death penalty paired with an extremely high standard of proof. Basically if the person isn't caught at the scene committing the act or on video doing it, then they're not getting sentenced to death. This would ensure that no one who's conviction was kinda eh gets a death sentence and would justify streamlining the appeals process to allow the sentence to be carried out much more quickly rather than waiting fuckin years to finally kill someone.
For the third point, that's mostly a result of medical suppliers refusing to supply the correct drugs that have been for lethal injections. But assisted suicide drugs apparently are fine, humane, and pretty much readily available. If Canada can MAID hundreds of people a year humanely then there's no reason the same can't be done to death row inmates.
Some might also argue that it's worse to be in prison for the rest of their lives than to die. Personally I feel that being dead is a worse than a crap life, but I guess that's personal opinion. I don't think they really care either since I'd bet most people who commit heinous acts are sociopaths who do not spend a single second of their prison time thinking about their victims or reflecting on what they did to end up in there.
As a morally superior person, I don't feel like I have to kill people that do crimes. A life of hard labor and isolation is more practical for my tastes.
