In Favor of

• "When there has been brought home to any one, by conclusive evidence, the greatest crime known to the law; and when the attendant circumstances suggest no palliation of the quilt, no hope that the culprit may even yet not be unworthy to live among mankind, nothing to make if probable that the crime was an exception to his general character rather than a consequence of it, then I confess it appears to me that to deprive the criminal of the life of which he has proved himself to be unworthy--solemnly to blot him out from the fellowship of mankind and from the catalogue of the living--is the most appropriate as it is certainly the most impressive, mode in which society can attach to so great a crime the penal consequences which for the security of life it is indispensable to annex to it.  I defend this penalty, when confined to atrocious cases, on the very ground on which it is commonly attacked--on that of humanity to the criminal; as beyond comparison the least cruel mode in which it is possible adequately to deter from the crime."   - John Stuart Mill

• The death penalty is the only guaranteed method to eliminate recidivism.  

• Criminals should be punished accordingly to their crimes. 

• Execution generally costs less than imprisonment.

Against

• Capital punishment is cruel and unusual.

• Capital punishment denies due process of law because it is irrevocable.   Any new evidence or new laws that may have helped the individual can no longer do so.

• Capital punishment wastes resources because it takes time away from the courts, attorneys, and juries. 

• The death penalty violates due process of law because it is applied randomly