Question about Capital punishment?

That's a very difficult question from an ethical standpoint.

One major problem with the death penalty is that an innocent person will be put to death sooner or later because the justice system messed up.  The Innocence Project and other defenders of the wrongfully convicted have over the years helped overturn the convictions of several inmates on death row.  In light of this fact, it's very difficult to ethically defend the continued use of the death penalty in the United States.I do think that a good argument can be made in the most heinous cases involving mass murder, genocide or terrorism that keeping the perpetrator alive endangers society because that only gives them the opportunity to propagate their poisonous ideology.  I'm not referring here to murderers convicted on possibly dubious circumstantial or forensic evidence that might later be overturned, but rather those whose guilt is obvious to everyone and who are proud of what they did and are actively seeking to recruit others to their cause.I consider it a good thing that the worst Nazi war criminals went to the gallows very soon after being convicted in the Nuremberg trials because otherwise they could write memoirs and propaganda that rewrites history and inspires neo-Nazis.  As a modern day example, thousands of captured ISIS fighters are being warehoused in prison camps in Syria and Iraq.  They are a serious escape risk and are actively radicalizing others in those camps.  If I were living a town near one of these camps, I'd probably be wondering why they are still alive because their very existence poses an ongoing threat to the entire region.

But those who commit murder or other serious crimes without an underlying ideological cause to which they actively seek to radicalize others are not such an immediate threat to society even when they are in prison, and I do not support the use of the death penalty in these cases.

If you're a Christian, you should have enough faith in your god that you can expect him to do the right thing and mete out justice. 

Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

I'm not religious, but I think there's too much chance of making a mistake, for one thing. In any event, capital punishment corresponds to violent crime: in America the states that execute have the highest murder rates. Europe, which has no capital punishment, has far less violent crime than the United States. That's a correlation, and not necessarily a cause and effect, but it shows that executing people has no deterrent effect: it's only for revenge, and revenge should NEVER  be a motivation for a sentence.

Well, I suppose if the person has also admitted the crime.  There is this Proverb in the Bible, which says that it is better that TWO guilty men go free than an innocent  man be locked up.

Most of the time, even in death penalty states, the perps never get to the execution, they just sit in jail and eat food, get medical care, etc.

I'm not soft on crime at all, I just want to be sure the person is guilty.  And, yes, there are such heinous crimes that the fairest thing to do is to take their life.  But, it doesn't bring back the life/lives of the affected people.  

Sometimes, I think the ultimate thing is for the loved ones of the injured, to forgive the perp.  I think that makes the Devil so angry! You know, you don't wipe out darkness with more darkness, you wipe out the dark, by bringing in the light!

Pedophile

Serial child rapist

Serial killer

Drug dealers 

Terrorists - domestic and foreign 

Morally, yes.

Practically, no. It costs too much, and takes too long. We need to shut them away for life without parole, and forget about them, instead of appeal after appeal after appeal, and trial after trial.