Letting the guilty live is mercy without justice. Society is bearing the cost of one who would see innocent dead. Simply saying “death penalty bad” is cruelty to law abiding members of society, and that will quickly lead to chaos.

Society is bearing the cost (in repeat offending) of treating everyone who goes to prison as a person incapable of acting pro-socially.

It's not just that the death penalty is cruel (though I believe that it is), its that much of the carcerial state is there to do everything possible to make it hard to do anything other than remain a criminal once a person has been to prison.

From my position, much of the cruelty and retribution against criminals (ranging from poor conditions to bad healthcare to lack of post-incarceration support) just increases recidivism and that a real problem for all of us:

cruelty in the name of retribution is the real sacrifice of the good of the whole.

I thought it was just about not killing people. They're still prisoners.