http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2009/03/09/stereotypes-and-victims-of-crime/

You are still using the “state” as it exists under socialism, not liberal democracies such as Australia. In Australia, if the death penalty were re-introduced, yes, citizen-juries would be declaring the will of the people.

It’s pretty simple, Michael. Killing members of an invading army stops an imminent crime being committed. It is crime prevention rather than retribution.

The state (in the form of the Police) already has the power to kill in order to prevent a serious crime being committed, if they have no other choice.

The death penalty is retribution, not prevention (and even if you were to argue it was prevention, there are other methods other than the death penalty that could also prevent the criminal from reoffending, e.g. solitary confinement for the term of his natural life etc).

http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/2010/03/my-death-penalty-is-better-than-yours.html#comments

THR, this is not a ‘right’ in any of the senses that we understand a ‘right’. Its certainly not something they can done freely at the states leisure, and it is a power only held by the judiciary which can exercised only in the most limited circumstances having satisfied the most rigorous requirements. So let me add here, that were the latter cannot be satisfactorily secured and the independence of the judiciary is questionable then I would not defend the availability of capital punishment. But, in our circumstances and under our system of justice, I would.

But the question is whether we, as a society, are going to follow that primordial instinct and place vendetta at the heart and pinnacle of the justice system. I have both practical and moral reasons for saying no to that. I don’t acknowledge that the state – excepting special circumstances – has the authority to kill people.

CL, I sympathetic to this perspective but I don’t think it places vendetta at the heart of justice. From my vantage, there are some crimes so heinous that the only appropriate penalty is death, and this is not the shadow of vendetta falling across our justice system but an expression of severity of our revulsion at the crime committed by perpetrator. I would also say that while forgiveness may be a divine trait when exercised by individuals in their private lives it can be disastrous and an indulgence when exercised by states in our public lives.

I gave an example very early on. I thought it would please both parties.

Texas is another example of a jurisdiction that only executes aggravated murderers but people keep on bringing this issue up.

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/PE/htm/PE.19.htm

*Sec. 19.03. CAPITAL MURDER. (a) A person commits an offense if the person commits murder as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:

(1) the person murders a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman;

(2) the person intentionally commits the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat under Section 22.07(a)(1), (3), (4), (5), or (6);

(3) the person commits the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;

(4) the person commits the murder while escaping or attempting to escape from a penal institution;

(5) the person, while incarcerated in a penal institution, murders another:

(A) who is employed in the operation of the penal institution; or

(B) with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;

(6) the person:

(A) while incarcerated for an offense under this section or Section 19.02, murders another; or

(B) while serving a sentence of life imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section 20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;

(7) the person murders more than one person:

(A) during the same criminal transaction; or

(B) during different criminal transactions but the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct;

(8) the person murders an individual under six years of age; or

(9) the person murders another person in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a justice court, or a municipal court.

(b) An offense under this section is a capital felony.

(c) If the jury or, when authorized by law, the judge does not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of an offense under this section, he may be convicted of murder or of any other lesser included offense.*

No. Prisoners can be incarcerated for life, and prisons can be managed in such a way that the violence inside is minimal.