Reply #5: Yes if someone harmed someone I loved, I would want revenge

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

but I don't equate revenge with justice.
My main reasons for being against the death penalty are as follows:

It is administered unfairly, and unequally. There are no millionaires on death row.

It is final. If one makes an erroneous conviction and it is not uncovered on time, an innocent person has been put to death.

It is not a deterrent to violent crime.

It is more costly than life imprisonment, after appeals and if appeals are short circuited or fast-tracked, we run the risk of executing an even greater number of innocent people than we might be doing now.

More countries are abolishing the death penalty than incorporating it.

We share the tradition with nations such as CHina, Saddam's Iraq and other nations that administer the death penalty are mostly despotic.

Possibly the only exception, for me and even then I doubt I would accept it, would be war crimes.