Why do so many criminals fight hard against the death penalty being imposed on them?

Here is an interesting case from Politico. Attorneys say alleged USS Cole bomb plotter shouldn't face death penalty:

Attorneys for the Saudi national accused of masterminding the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole filed a motion Friday arguing that the government's treatment of their client, the mishandling of his prosecution and flaws in the military commissions process should exempt him from being subject to the death penalty.

In their legal brief, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri's lawyers said their client was tortured at the hands of the CIA while being held in secret prisons after his 2002 capture in the United Arab Emirates.

“The United States should not be permitted to kill a man it has brutally tortured and subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” they wrote. . . .