I think the death penalty is hypocritical because in using this penalty governing bodies are upholding the notion that people have the right to decide whether another person should live or die. This notion could have been employed by the very prisoners sentenced to death– for example someone who murdered the man who killed their wife. In this scenario someone has decided a person must die as punishment for a crime they committed, which is a standard practice set by the courts where the death penalty is legal. Therefore, I think the death penalty is hypocritical in this way: how can laws expect people to respect life if they do not. Also, I believe that no human court in which a person could be sentenced to death is 100% infallible or non-biased; there is always the chance that someone is unjustly convicted for a crime they did not commit. In this case the ruling body are hypocritical as they are just as bad as any murderer – sentencing an innocent person to death, which is an irreversible, and inexcusable punishment for the person and their family.

**TL;DR – The death penalty is hypocritical, unethical, and illogical based on the reasons why criminals are punished.** David Swanton writes in the source below, “Criminologists consider that the major reasons for criminal penalties are rehabilitation (reforming the prisoner to be a better citizen), incapacitation (preventing the prisoner from committing other crimes), deterrence (discouraging the prisoner and others from further crime) and retribution (society punishing the prisoner as vengeance for a criminal act).” Deterrence and retribution are the only solidified reasons out of the four that the death penalty would directly serve without jail sentences – both are somewhat biased. Scientifically, the criminal mind thinks differently and without considering that death could potentially be a punishment for them. It does not seem like anything deters criminal activity that would call for the death penalty, unfortunately. Punishment is not a universal thing and, in my opinion, death will never be an unbiased punishment in terms of retributions. https://www.ethicalrights.com/articles/media/136-death-penalty-is-morally-unacceptable

Don't get me wrong, we need to get rid of the death penalty, but to claim that it's hypocritical? Killing a person does not = killing a different person in a different situation. It is not intrinsically wrong to kill someone, and the murders that people are typically on death row for ARE intrinsically wrong. We'd all agree I'm not a murderer for defending myself in a way that might kill my assailant. I'd argue that neither the judge nor the executioner are a murderer themselves for sentencing a murderer to die, and then carrying it out. It's society trying to defend itself. I don't agree with it, but it's not hypocritical. I will say that the death penalty is ironic. But hypocritical? Kind of a misuse of the word. Comes off as trying to be dismissive of the opposition.