Chalk me in on the side against the death penalty.
First, I'd never feel particularly qualified to decide whether or not a human being needs to die, and I'm far too arrogant to buy the idea that all those judges and lawyers out there are so much smarter than I am that they have some sort of insight into this matter.
Second, there's a serious disparity in the American legal system, and I would imagine that it probably exists in most others. Poor people and non-whites get executed, rich whites walk. Until this problem is fixed, I'm really not going to be enthused about the idea of using punishments that can't be taken back.
Third, and least rationally, my gut is just against it. If we had captured Hitler, or if we do capture Osama bin Laden, I wouldn't want them executed. I'd want them sitting in a prison cell for the rest of their lives, but no, I wouldn't even want them tortured. Well, that's not true -- there's a part of me that wants to kill people like that -- but that isn't the part of me that really should be given the floor.
The way I see it, killing is only acceptable in situations of self-defense. And executions really aren't self-defense.
