What are the arguments for and against the death penalty?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

There is considerable debate among classical thinkers as to whether the death penalty is an appropriate form of criminal sanction. The main claims made by opponents of capital punishment are:
• Capital punishment does not deter crime
• The death penalty has, at times, been imposed on innocent people, with no workable system currently in place to prevent the accidental execution of innocents
• Human life is sacred, even the life of a murderer
• State-imposed death lowers society to the same moral (or amoral) level as the murderer
• The death penalty has been haphazardly imposed in seemingly random fashion
• The death penalty is imposed disproportionately upon minorities
• Capital punishment goes against most fundamental precepts of organized religion
• The death penalty is more expensive than imprisonment
• Internationally, capital punishment is widely viewed as inhumane and barbaric
• A viable alternative exists in life imprisonment without the possibility of parole

Advocates of capital punishment discount these claims by countering arguments of injustice with the proposition that those who commit especially heinous acts deserve death.