What I support is what works best as a deterrent, but only as determined by the statistical evidence.
Whether a particular method of execution mollifies some sensitive liberal on the one hand, or slakes someone's desire for public retribution on the other, should not be the issue.
The deterrent dynamic is weakend by endless appeals and long incarcerations beforehand.
The death penalty is a punishment for those sick, twisted, demented, mad dogs that have committed crimes warranting such an outcome. Whether or not it is a deterrent is strictly academic. Knowing these predatory scourges on society have breathed their last and will no longer threaten their fellow man or woman is all that is important. Even in Texas, it takes too long for these wretches to go from the here to the hereafter. And when they do receive the punishment they have earned, it just isn’t enough. They simply slip away, a fate not afforded to their victims.
I agree with other posters, bring back other forms of punishment. Bring back ol’ Sparky, the gas chamber or the hangman’s noose. Let these criminals know a modicum of the fear their victims did before they meet their Maker.