[jacobsheehy]

Citation needed. From what I understand, 1) that theory is incorrect and the death penalty is not seen as a deterrent by potential future criminals (rather it may be the opposite) [citation coming]; and 2) Policymakers who say it is a deterrent are either lying or disinformed.

My understanding of the death penalty is that it is intended as violent punishment and is done gruesomely for the purposes of revenge. Read any thread online about a bad crime and you will see mobs of people calling for violent, public murders of the accused. It's human nature for a lot of people and something I think a civilized nation would immediately outlaw, especially ones that pride themselves on not doing "cruel and unusual punishment". I remember reading that the death penalty in the US doesn't fall under that category merely because of the 'and' clause and the relatively common nature of gruesome murders by the State in the US.

[citations]. It seems that states without the death penalty have lower murder rates, suggesting the opposite forces are true compared to your post (edit: i.e, it might even mean that a place with state-sanctioned/performed murder is more likely to have murders).

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death...

[JoeAltmaier]

Agreed. But the death penalty still has the property that it avoids recidivism completely. Which is a deterrent of sorts.

[copperx]

Life imprisonment avoids recidivism completely too. At least on the civilian population.

[mikeash]

So does a life sentence.

[bodas]

That's what I was saying. The death penalty is about making a violent example of someone (regardless of whether it is effective). A compassionate execution is a failed execution because it fails to make the statement that was the point of the exercise.

[int_19h]

That's only one of the possible takes on death penalty. Another one is that it permanently removes a threat from society (life sentence doesn't, because the prisoner can still escape).

In practice, though, it seems that most people who support death penalty do see it as a punishment intended mainly for deterrence, and what they refer to as "justice" (i.e. cathartic vengeance - "torturing someone who made me feel bad makes me feel good").

[SamReidHughes]

It also serves as a form of expression about your values.

[URSpider94]

That just doesn’t align with modern legal thinking.

[int_19h]

The electric chair was originally adopted as a "humane" execution method as well.