Hard to say.
On the one hand. Killing someone is wrong... on the other hand.. if they're going to be locked up for life anyway...
May as well save some money if there is a way to do it cheap.
Then again you do have the problem of sentencing being set by judges which tends to lead to some people getting death penalty more often then others...
and the occasional false convinction.
In the end... whatever. Both situations suck and there is no right answer in my opinion as there is nothing you can really do to amply punish someone who kills or even rapes someone else.
Note: Agravated rape is a capital crime in like... 3 states. Though I don't think they actually give out the death penalty for that. Think it was even ruled unconstitutional cause it didn't involve deaths. Yet Treason... steal death penalty.
