Should the State Have Power Over Life and Death?

The execution of Troy Davis has made the news lately.  It has revitalized the anti-death penalty movement.  The reporting around this news made me think about the death penalty again.  Although I used to be gung-ho in support of the death penalty, I have taken a position of ambivalence for quite some time.

Part of that ambivalence is due to researching the "Jewish position."  The Torah proscribes the death penalty for multiple crimes, including first-degree murder, violating the Sabbath, and being a "rebellious child."  However, when taking a look at how it was put into practice in Judaism, the rabbis did their utmost to make sure that it was never enacted.  In the Mishnah Makkot 1:10, the oft-cited verse goes as far to say that "if we were on the Sanhedrin, we would have never used the death penalty."  In terms of the death penalty, theory and practice seem to have a considerable-sized gap between them.    

That got me to start thinking of why the rabbis would want to throw every obstacle in front of corporal punishment, making it virtually impossible to ever enact the death penalty in practice.  Maybe the rabbis did so because no judicial court should have that much power over life and death.  In secular terms, none of us are so concise all the time to consistently render fair and impartial verdicts.  Especially with the DNA testing that is exonerating those who have been sitting on Death Row all these years, I can hardly believe that the death penalty has been consistently carried out since we have been using it.  If I have been critical of other areas of government being imperfect, if not downright inept, why do I expect the government to carry out such a daunting task of determining who lives and who dies under our penal system?  To quote William Blackstone, it's better that "ten guilty escape than one person suffer."

However, I am still having troubles fully dismissing the pro-death penalty side.  What do you do when somebody with unquestionable guilt comes along, such as Timothy McVeigh or Adolph Eichmann?  Eichmann's guilt was never doubted, and even with all the terrorist acts in Israel, he has been the only person executed (with a quick hanging, mind you) in the history of modern Israel.  It is unambiguous cases such as Eichmann that I cannot completely go along with the anti-death penalty crowd.

Ambivalence still ensues, and I have yet a way to get around it.  Hopefully, someone will make an extremely valid point that will keep me in one camp or the other.