Is it vengeance? I feel that if somebody decides they have the right to take another life, then by that flawed belief system they're acknowledging that someone has the right to take their life. So in the really bad cases, where the convicted murderer was convicted with 100% certainty, I'm not against it. However I don't like how there is no consistency to how it's applied, for example Texas. Looking from a broader perspective the US is one of the few remaining western countries that still hasn't banned the death penalty, so it probably should just be banned federally, though the conservatives won't let that happen.