Is the death penalty a form of retaliation?

Maybe the concept will be more palatable to you if you just try to think of it as late term abortion? Just a thought!

Of course it is. It can't possibly serve any other purpose. It doesn't rehabilitate anyone, and it's not a deterrent because nothing ever is.

Yes. But only according to the Code of Hammurabi.

Close, it's a form of revenge. You see it in their eyes when on TV some relative of a person who was murdered calls for "justice" and that justice is the death penalty. When they call for the death penalty, they are really calling for revenge.

It's more about revenge, and the supremacy of the state to take a human life legally.

Yes, I think it is. For many years capital punishment was thought to be a deterrent to crime. But lots of studies have been done and it's never been shown to be a deterrent. During the GHW Bush years I heard pro-capital punishment people finally admitting it wasn't a deterrent, and for a while their argument shifted, more honestly, to 'just desserts' and retribution.

But in more recent discussions, I see they're back to deterrent.

If you listen to how pro-death people talk about it, it sure sounds like retaliation!