The Death Penalty

This picture is a scene from Deadman Walking. A famous film based on a true story about one experience of capital punishment.The laws regarding the death penalty are changing in America. You would think that in a civilised society that capital punishment would be on its way out. Elisabeth Semel, a death penalty's specialist said the intention of the new proposed regulation was, "To make it more difficult for people who have been sentenced to death in state courts, including those sentenced without adequate representation and resources, to avoid being executed." If this is the case then it is basically killing people without giving the the proper opportunity to defend themselves which sounds like a crime to me. Murder is a crime it is immoral whoever is doing the killing. how can the right punishment a person for murder or rape, or what ever other crime has been committed by murdering them. I may be oversimplifying it but to me it doesn't make sense. 123 innocent people have been sentenced to death, who is getting punished for there murders and what punishment should they get?

This is a link to a website that disscusses the pro's and con's of the death penalty.
www.balancedpolitics.org/death_penalty.htm