I believe in the Death Penalty if there is not a shred of doubt that a person committed a murder (or committed treason that resulted in death). If there is doubt, I think it's best to hold off because history has proven that innocent people have been sent to death when evidence later came to light that showed these people were innocent.
My belief for the death sentence comes down to "an eye for an eye". I believe if you take someone's life, you should expect to have your life taken. Now, this is not to say my belief comes from a proverb or even from the Bible; it comes from rights and how law protects our rights. Let me explain: if someone violates your rights, say your right to property, by committing theft, then that criminal will have their right to liberty and pursuit of happiness deprived, through jail time, as just compensation for the crime they committed. I believe the ultimate crime a person could ever commit is murder, therefore the only just compensation for that crime is the deprivation of life.
With all that said, I don't believe it should be used on someone convicted of drug-trafficking unless their drugs can be directly linked to the death of another person.
I also believe that if people knew they would be sentenced to death, they would think twice about committing murder. This acts as one of the many impediments that we have in this world preventing someone from committing murder. With that in mind: someone who is about to commit a murder might be persuaded not to, thus saving another person's life. In that sense, the death penalty would actually save a life.
There is also the cost of housing a prisoner. According to vera.org, the annual cost of housing an inmate averages to $31k for the 40 states that the survey was conducted. If they were to spend 50 years in jail, for example, the total cost would be $1.55 million dollars. The cost of having to pay for an inmate to carry out a life sentence, knowing he will just die in jail, seems illogical to me.
