I could be in favor of executing a limited subset of murderers who commit especially depraved (or mass) murders, as long as there is close to zero doubt they did it. Such as being caught at the scene as in the case of Dylan Roof the church assassin. Or of there is substantial and uncontradicted physical evidence.
You could even make it part of the sentence that they get 10 years in jail for appeals and such before their execution date. And have a review board that makes sure that guilt is not in doubt.
A big problem with the system as it is, is that it's poor and poorly educated and minorities who get the death penalty. Often legal counsel was inept -- there have been death penalty cases where the attorney never handled such a case before, where the lawyer slept through parts of the trial etc. If the person is clearly guilty or the evidence so stacked against them, any competent lawyer will plea bargain and get their client a long prison term instead of exposing them to the death penalty. Related, if the lawyer fails to bring up some objections or introduce some evidence into trial, that often precludes any appeals on those grounds. So the system as it is punishes the poor with inept or inexperienced counsel.
And there are racial issues as well. Studies have shown that killing a white person leads to more death penalty convictions. That black defendants get the death penalty more than whites. That juries without blacks vote for the death penalty for black defendants more, etc. I assume death penalty is sought more for black defendants and white victims as well.
So given the realities of poor counsel and a weak public defender system, plus the inherent racism in the US criminal justice I find it very hard to practically implement a fair and mistake free death penalty regime. As it stands it's generally poor and poorly educated minorities who get the death penalty. For most defendants, it's not too difficult to plea bargain and/or argue mitigating factors and avoid such.
Then there's also issues of mental competency and youth.
A can of worms all around.
At least under the current regime the death penalty is fairly rare, takes around 20 years for a sentence to be carried out -- but I don't think anyone would argue that it's fair and mistake free.
Indeed.
The death penalty is a croc.
The premeditated, cold-blooded killing of human beings by the state is barbaric.
It was barbaric in Auschwitz, and it's just as barbaric today.
Walk the human into the chamber of death alive, and wheel them out dead...time modern America moved on from that. Ask Sabrina Butler, I'm sure she will agree.
Ask the Innocence Project, they will certainly agree.