Whenever I think of the Dylan Roof incident.
The death penalty isn't a punishment, who really learns from it, the criminal? It's a tool for society to remove what amounts to a defective person (not human, person). People are supposed to value the lives of other people by default. Any sustained deviation from this norm is a symptom of a person who cannot value life.
Dylan Roof was given 1000s of opportunities to demonstrate that he did actually value life but because of his defective nature there was no choose but to remove him.
"Life in prison" can be canceled/pardoned/changed, death cannot. That is why it's near impossible to make it happen and even if it does,, people spend the rest of their lives waiting for their "execution" (ftr Dylan is still alive at this time source).
Now in what possible world would you be able to convince a jury of random peers, or judges with their heads actually screwed on tight, that a sample size of one murder proves that a person is defective.
Genuine responses only:
This is why we Jews know not to manufacture life