Arguments for and against the death penalty

[MarkD]

I support the death penalty because I believe the severity of the punishment should match the severity of the crime. Note I am not oversimplifying the concept by merely saying the punishment should fit the crime, nor an eye for an eye. As I said it, I emphasized the severity of the punishment and the crime. I believe the most appropriate form of the death penalty should be firing squad.

It's also important to note that the death penalty is not unconstitutional for two reasons: one is an originalism-based support for the death penalty and the other is a textualism-based argument.
1) The death penalty was in very common use when the Bill of Rights was proposed and ratified. The men who adopted the Eighth Amendment did not intend to prohibit what they themselves were often doing.
2) The text of the Fifth Amendment refers three times to the availability and presumed legality of using the death penalty: the Grand Jury Clause begins with the words "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury," then the Double Jeopardy Clause says, "nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb," and then the Due Process Clause says no person shall "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." So people CAN be prosecuted for a CAPITAL crime with indictment by a grand jury, and people CAN be put in jeopardy of their LIFE so long as they are only tried once, and people CAN be deprived of LIFE with due process of law.