True but it means nothing if it's not considered in law. Personally, I see no difference between death penalty and life sentence, whichever is lest costly should be exercised (seems, rather counter intuitively, that death penalty is more costly in the US [definitely not in Iran, for example] so I'd be siding with life sentence). What I don't get at all is human rights arguments against death penalty regardless of the crime and criminal. The "only" argument that I can sympathize with is the fact that human judgment is never hundred percent flawless and death penalty is irreversible.