Murder is murder. The justice of the death penalty is strengthened, not weakened, by the advent of new technologies such as DNA testing, which have recently been utilized to more firmly establish guilt or innocence. It's too late for that. What's past is past. We can't have anarchy.
Life imprisonment is a poor substitute for the death penalty.
Such a plan heaps additional punishment upon victims by insisting that they pay for the living expenses, the education expenses, the recreation expenses, the medical expenses of the man who killed their kin. Such a plan is in fact socialism for in behalf of butchers. Face it, murderers have been known to kill in prison, order a hit on a civilian while in prison, and to kill once they get out of prison. That's why the average murderer on death row has killed 3 people before he is finally put to death. Putting a man to death the first time around is better.