Justice, Civilization, and the Death Penalty: Answering van den Haag

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This chapter describes a conception of retributive justice that accounts for the justice of executing murderers, and argues that though the death penalty is a just punishment for murder, abolition of the death penalty is part of the civilizing mission of modern states. It explores the case for the abolition of the death penalty by defending the justice of the death penalty as a punishment for murder. The chapter considers the challenges confronting those who would argue against the death penalty. The death penalty is the last corporal punishment used officially in the modern world. In addition to discrimination in the recruitment of murderers, and in the application of the death penalty among murderers, there is a third sort that affects the justice of instituting the penalty, namely, discrimination in the legal definition of murder. Refusing to execute murderers though they deserve it both reflects and continues the taming of the human species that we call civilization.