If you support the death penalty, you support killing as revenge.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

30. Oh dear....

Has Ted Bundy killed anyone recently? So when you execute a murderer, you're making sure he won't kill again. So there is a deterrent. On a broader level, it's nearly impossible to tell if the death penalty does or does not have a deterrent effect because its use is so widely varied.

As to the "it costs more" argument with regard to the death penalty, you're actually making a back door argument for fewer and fewer appeals (that all cost money) and for quicker executions -- which would lead to more wrongly-convicted persons being put to death. Which is something I'm pretty sure you don't intend to do.

I do believe that some people are just so wholly evil that because of their crimes they have forfeited the right to exist, even in a prison cell. The problem is that until I see OJ Simpson or Dick Cheney in the death chamber, I know that the death penalty is applied only to people who lack the financial means to avoid it.

Philosophically, I have no issues with the death penalty. As a practical matter, as a punishment administered by people who are prone to making mistakes in judgment, I see no way to pursue the policy without committing gross injustices.