I used to agree with your position but have since reconsidered. My current view is that the use of the death penalty is far too limited. Let me explain why. For my entire life the death penalty has been only used for various forms of murder, and aa such it's easy to view executing someone as closing the barn after the horses have run. This is not how societies have used capital punishment for most of history. There is a well know principle among beat cops that a stick-up man WILL eventually shoot, and probably, kill someone. We don't do life sentences for a criminal who points a gun at a store clerk and if we did it would be decried as unjust. But people who do behave this way are going to eventually kill someone after they do a stint for armed robbery and go back to their usual ways. This is why societies have usually hung brigands and horse thieves.

As to the power of the state, if it is going to prohibit polite society from taking out the trash on its own, it has to shoulder the responsibility. An unfortunate tradeoff for those who wish limit the power of the state, but one that has to be made or you wind up like San Franisco will legalized brigandry (by people who WILL eventually take a life over $20).

EDIT: As for the risk of executing the innocent, there is a reason Blackstone's ratio is a ratio, and why he put it at about 10 to 1 and not 10,000,000 to 1.

I used to agree with your position but have since reconsidered. My current view is that the use of the death penalty is far too limited. Let me explain why. For my entire life the death penalty has been only used for various forms of murder, and aa such it's easy to view executing someone as closing the barn after the horses have run. This is not how societies have used capital punishment for most of history. There is a well know principle among beat cops that a stick-up man WILL eventually shoot, and probably, kill someone. We don't do life sentences for a criminal who points a gun at a store clerk and if we did it would be decried as unjust. But people who do behave this way are going to eventually kill someone after they do a stint for armed robbery and go back to their usual ways. This is why societies have usually hung brigands and horse thieves.

As to the power of the state, if it is going to prohibit polite society from taking out the trash on its own, it has to shoulder the responsibility. An unfortunate tradeoff for those who wish limit the power of the state, but one that has to be made or you wind up like San Franisco will legalized brigandry (by people who WILL eventually take a life over $20).