I believe that there are certain people that deserve to die and in some cases being locked up for life is enough or time in prison with parole.  The ones that murder their spouses because of domestic violence-like women whom have killed their husbands because they had been abused for years-I believe either Life In Prison or Time in Prison with the possibility of parole and the reason I say this is a girl that I worked with about 10 years ago-had served 15 years in prison for stabbing her boyfriend 17 times and killing him-the guy had been abusing her for years and when she tried to get away he stalked and threatened her life constantly, finally 1 night he broke into her house with the intent to harm her and did harm her and to protect herself she stabbed him,and he kept getting back up and coming at her,it took her stabbing him 17 times before it was over,she did 15 years in prison and she was remorseful for what she had done-but the law was not doing anything to help or protect her from him, so she did what she had to do and she got out on parole after serving her time and is now a productive citizen and has learned from her experience,she did wrong-but did what she had to do to protect herself, and she paid her debt to society-so in these kinds of cases-if it's self defense I don't feel that the death penalty is deserved.

But it's people like: SCOTT PETERSEN, CASEY ANTHONY, DREW PETERSEN, JEFFREY DAHMER,TED BUNDY, MARK DAVID CHAPMAN,CHARLIE MANSON, and people like that that deserve the death penalty-people whom kill for stupid and evil reasons-they deserve to die and I am waiting for them to pull the plug on SCOTT PETERSEN and I want to see him die-I feel no pity or mercy for him.

I feel Mark David Chapman Lennon's murderer should have gotten the death penalty because it was premeditated and he did it in cold blood, and not to mention shooting the man once wasn't enough-he had to shoot him 5 times to make sure the job was done and every year he stands a chance of getting out on parole or every 2 years-he doesn't deserve parole, he took this man away from his wife and 2 children and chapman murdered this man in front of the man's wife-doesn't matter whether he was mental or not-he killed the man in cold blood for no good reason and he should've died for that fact. So there are some cases where I think the death penalty is deserved and some I feel where it isn't deserved.

More often now is by the same jury that convicted the defendant. They have a better understanding of what the perpetrater did, and can decide fairly. However, their vote can be overturned by the presiding judge, and of course the supreme court can also overturn a death sentence.

This very thing happened during the Manson trial when all participants were convicted and sentenced to death. Their sentences were commuted to life by the federal supreme court in 1972, because there was no uniformity in meteing out death sentences in each state.

There are many reasons why people have their death sentence overturned. The main reason is new evidence in their case. A great number of convicted people were sentenced to death and their convictions were vacated after DNA proved they weren't guilty. 

Prosecutors hesitate to ask for death from a jury, knowing no one wants to be responsible for making somebody die. They have to be one-hundred percent certain the person is guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, and project that certainty to the jury with all the skills they possess.