The purpose of life is to bear and raise offspring and contribute to society. Prisoners can't do this. Sure, some people may be wrongfully convicted and executed. People die from unfortunate accidents every single day. Life is not fair. Why should society support unproductive people who have rendered themselves unproductive through their own malevolent actions? Victorian England had the death penalty for hundreds of crimes including, if memory serves me right, being a habitual pickpocket and highway robbery. Social reforms happened in the late 19th and early 20th century. Also at the same time millions (probably hundreds of millions) of people died died world wars and revolutions and famines. Did these people who died deserve to die for the sake of liberal political narratives?