Yeah. But is revenge really such a bad thing in all cases? Also, since we're talking about incredibly violent people here it protects people from them permanently. Even if they're just in jail, their fellow prisoners deserve protection from the truly crazy people.
It's inconsistent. That's why I'm also against giving the victim a say in sentencing (a proposal that gets mooted from time to time). I don't believe a sentence should be mitigated by how benevolent your victim was nor do I believe that Justice should be a vehicle for revenge. I believe the main purpose of the justice system is or at least should be deterrent (at the very least it should deter reoffending)
And as Duck said, it's only so expensive because of appeals. If we only executed the people who were not in any way at risk of being innocent, the system could be designed such that this was not a problem.
It still makes me question the aspect of it where people see a suicide as escaping punishment but an execution as being it.
I read somewhere that mortality rates are higher among low level gang members than they are among death row inmates in America. That in itself speaks volumes about how broken the system is.
I don't think it's possible to fix the system fully. I also don't think it's necessary. It certainly needs adjustment but there is no perfect system on an individual level, you can only work towards a good system on a national level and that's one that best deters offending and re-offending and Americas record doesn't show that it does this currently.
Quibbling over whether or not something is "revenge" is a silly argument. Revenge (or retribution, or societal vengeance, or whatever you want to call it) is a major element of every criminal justice system in the world, including those that don't have the death penalty. You can still criticize that element of criminal justice, of course, but it makes no sense to single out the death penalty.
I disagree. I would characterize those aspects of it as deterrent.
I would rate the effectiveness of any justice system by the level of crimes in a country, the less crimes per head the more effective the system.