The death penalty is ineffective when it routinely takes 30 years or more to carry out an execution. Appeals after a conviction in a capital cases should be expedited at all levels of appeal (state and federal, all the way to the Supreme Court).
If someone was wrongly convicted then they should not spend 30 years on death row. If someone was rightly convicted then they should be executed within a couple of years of their conviction.
We also need to bring back public executions (preferably hangings in the courthouse square), but that is a rant for another day.
Who says it’s more civilized to let murderers cool their heels in prison while their victims are dead? Democrats, I guess.