There are a billion potential reasons for this, but it doesn’t appear to be that people have started dawning costumes and LARPing as the Punisher in large numbers.
> society needs to feel that the state executes justice
> People largely feel a greater trust in the state and a greater sense of justice and peace of mind when heinous criminals are killed
> people feel that justice is not being done
(and again)
> people feel that justice is not being done
They’re not going to give anybody a rational argument here because
> I guess you could call it vibes sure
It’s like asking somebody to justify why they’re really into ABDL stuff. The important part is that they just are, and won’t be talked out of it.
In brief, it doesn't matter what "is best" in some utilitarian framework if the democracy is not attuned to that framework. It doesn't matter if the death penalty actually increases crime. What matters is that the government should be doing what the people want it to be doing. If the people really want to kill criminals, any system that prevents that is non-democratic.