The last woman to be hung in Britain was Ruth Ellis in 1955. Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were the last people to be hung in 1964. The Death Penalty was abolished in 1964 in Britain.
Arguments for:
Deterrent - If a potential murderer knew that if they were caught they would be executed, they wouldn’t do it. It stops other people from committing the same offence.
Revenge - People need revenge for the death of a murdered victim. The Bible says ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. It is only right that you take a murderer’s life away.
Arguments against:
Cruel - No form of execution is painless.
Discriminates against the poor - In the USA more blacks are executed than whites. Those who can afford good lawyers are more likely to get off the Death Penalty than those who are poor.
No evidence of a deterrent - Murder rates continue to rise even in those states that have the death penalty.