I support it in cases where we're 100% sure the guy did a vile crime. Video, DNA, internet bragging about the crime, etc. Proof of the crime has to be held to the highest of standards, the crime must be terribly bad. If all that's met, frickin stab the guy to death in a back room. No reason to draw things out or feed the guy for 50 years, just get rid of him.
That's the problem though, you can almost never be 100% sure that's the person who did it.
My biggest issues with the death penalty are as follows...
1. Reliable convictions. We can't ensure that the police got the wrong man. Innocent people have been put to death, that's a fact. So we can't say it can't happen because it has. I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone. It has to be horrible being innocent on death row.
2. It's not a deterrent to others who will commit similar offenses. Statistically, having the death penalty doesn't stop the worst of the worst.
3. It's too fucking expensive. We spend too much money. It's cheaper to put someone in jail for live than to kill them.
4. Keeping them in jail for life is a harsher punishment than death. Once we kill them, the punishment is over for them. They can no longer suffer in prison for their crime.
4. It's racist. Minorities are way more likely to be sentenced to death than whites for the same crime in the same place.
I just think since we can't be 100% sure of their guilt, the government shouldn't be in the business of murdering others. I think a better punishment for those criminals is to isolate them in a tiny cell for 23.5 hours a day. The other half hour they get to into an empty room with the ceiling gone. They never see another human again. Everything is done through the hole in their door. Every meal is the exact same. They are only allowed access to educational, legal, and religious reading material. The only humans they see are a medical professional and their lawyer, and that's done through the hole in their door. Something like that completely removes their tgreat to society, but gives us the chance to find innocent people when technology improves.