The death penalty is not a punishment - it is reverence for life! It was instituted by God in His Covenant with Noah after the flood. Man is created in the image of God, thus any (animal or human) who take a life must pay with their life.
Jesus fulfilled (completed) the Covenant with Moses, but left in tack the Covenants with Noah and Abraham. Paul relies heavily on the Covenant with Abraham in his defense of the Gentile converts. I can see no Biblical case against the death penalty for the taking of a human life. Please let me know if you can find one.
Thanks!
Oh, I am quite in favor of the death penalty. Further, I think executions should be televised, not done behind closed doors. If the DP is to have any preventive effect, it needs to be as it used to be ... public. And if public executions are too shocking for the citizenry, maybe the state shouldn’t be acting in their pearl-clutching stead.