I'm gonna stick my head into a discussion for once. :P I agree with Mudling on this and I'm going to say that, ontop of everything else, sometimes the justice system can get it wrong. Innocent people have been sent to prison, not because the system was corrupt or so, but because they made a mistake when trying (if that's the right word) them.
When you put someone on trail, there are a many, many factors to be considered. What they did, what evidence is there against them, what evidence there is to prove their innocence, what the witnesses saw - The list goes on. The justice system is ran by humans. One of the things that humans do best is make mistakes, especially when things are so complex. And each case is unique.
Believe me, mistakes happen. Some people just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Now, with innocent people, you can go "Oh, sorry. We took several years away from your life, but we made a mistake." and release them afterward. With people you killed, you can't bring them back to life.
IMO, Capital Punishment isn't a good way of doing justice for this reason alone. You'd mostly kill the muderists and the rapists, sure, but putting innocent people to death is murder too. And besides, two wrongs don't make a right. Dude kills. You kill this dude. All you acheive is two deaths. Think about it. It's not to stay that murderists and rapists shouldn't be punsihed - Of course they should. But they shouldn't be punished in this way, IMO. And before you'll whine at me, the rational part of me would still be saying this even if they killed those closest to me while the other, not-so-rational part of me would want them dead without question. But I'm human. Sue me.
Wings of Fire and Bullet Magnet make some valid points too, BTW - I've thought about the methods of killing and stuff, but I've never once considered how expensive it'd be.
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