There will always be different views on this subject.  I am able to talk out of experience.  I am working in a prison and let me tell you the prison is not a place that scare criminals anymore.  It is more like a hotel.  Some criminals don't have any homes and sleep on the streets...so going to prison is an "upgrade" in living conditions for them. 

Inside the prison they are "home".  Drugs are freely available.  Rehabilitation is only a word. 

Some of these inmates are really the scum of the earth.  They have committed the most horrendous crimes you can think of...drowning a young boy in hot water only because of his skin color, etc etc.  Nobody is going to convince me that a person who rapes his own mother/grandmother deserves to live?  I honestly believe that such a person is beyond rehabilitation.  Once they are in prison and serve a life sentence they are not afraid to stab Prison Officials who are just performing their duties in order to provide for their families.  Great...found guilty of stabbing another inmate/Official...6 months added to sentence but because the inmate is already serving a life sentence it has no effect on his sentence.  It only helps him to get promotion within the gangs.

So yes, definitely,  I support the death penalty.  If you cannot respect the life of a fellow human being...no respect towards your life must be shown.