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It's possible for one person to have varying views on multiple topics.
For example, I've been a registered Democrat all my life, but I'm also a gun owner and pro death penalty.
People vary. Nobody expects purity top to bottom.
I would like to have a respectful disagreement.
I put forward that while it is understandable to desire the death penalty when serving justice, that the government should not enjoy that power. That it is too often erroneous in it's prosecution of justice, if not occasionally willfully so, to be entrusted with the power to execute any criminal, no matter the crime or preponderance of evidence.
Your rebuttal, sir/madame/all else.
I believe that the death penalty needs to be reserved for the most severe crimes, it shouldn't be handed out willy nilly like Texas does.
Case in point, this asshole, there is no "correcting" this behavior. The only response society should have given him is "better luck next time."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westley_Allan_Dodd
It's a travesty this asshole was allowed to plead out of a death penalty:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Weaver_III
Is the death penalty over used? Absolutely. Is it unfairly applied racially? No doubt about it.
I see those as arguments to correct it and keep it in order to remove literal monsters. It's not about punishment, or even deterrent, it's about telling another human being "What you have done is beyond redemption, there's nothing left for you here."
This is a pretty reasonable take on the death penalty, one I actually pretty closely align with, even with as much as I don't like it. It needs to be the absolute last resort for only the most heinous and indefensible of crimes.
Ultimate penalty for ultimate crimes.
I would hypothetically be for the death penalty for heinous crimes if our judicial system was 100% foolproof. Unfortunately, false convictions happen surprisingly often, there have even been cases of death row inmates being exonerated. I don't think the benefits of the death penalty justify even one single wrongful death, so practically I'm against it.
In the two cases I listed there was no question of guilt. No problem throwing the death penalty at them.
I don't know the details of those two cases, so perhaps. As a policy it's still subject to the existence of false convictions though, so not worth it to me
Nothing more, nothing less.