I am totally against death penalty and this sums up pretty well why:
http://www.justicedenied.org/executed.htm

The justice system isn't and probably will not ever be perfect. By killing someone you rob yourself of any possibility of correcting what later may be proven to be a mistake. It is terrible if an innocent person spends many years in prison but this is far better if they are killed. An innocent person can be released from prison an compensation can be paid but you cannot amend for a life taken. This is why death penalty is always wrong and have no place in a modern justice system.

Do not believe that modern forensic techniques like DNA scanning is a holy grail of certaincy, they are not. DNA evidence can prove innocence far more often then they can prove guilt and often there are no such evidence available. The same is true for fingerprints, to evan an higher degree. Fingerprint evidence are often of a terribly low quality, mostly fragments and so they often also end up being more useful to prove innocence then guilt.

Then we have the problem with those that are guilty but may not deserve to die for it anyway. I talk about people that belong more in a psychiatric institution then in prison. The tendency of sending mentally ill people to prison and heaven forbid, death row is a disgrace. These people need to be treated for their illness, not punished. Their ailment that made them commit crimes may one day be cured, just keep them safe until the doctors finds out how. We do not have death penalty where I live but other then that we have the same problem here. Inmates in our prisons are actually complaining about new arrivals that should have been sent to mental hospital for treatment rather then locked up with no access to treatment.[/url]