Im up for death penalty, but not as in real life.
In this game, its just a small line to cross before it turns into GTA online, and people who enjoy go around and make a mayhem in GTA will also join this game, its pretty obvious that they will.
If you are a criminal, of course you got to have the right to protect yourself from other criminals and cops, so killing a cop or another criminal shouldnt give you death penalty.
But if you as a criminal kills a farmer or a mailman etc. you should get death penalty as you wont get anything out from killing a civilian (if the farmer dont grow weed or the mailman transport gold ofc.) Thats why i believe that as a mailman you got to choose what to deliver, christmas cards are not acceptable for a criminal to try to steal (or at least kill for), but gold and other very valuable things will make you a target that is free to kill without death penalty.