Among the major nations of the Western world, the United States is singular in still having the death penalty. After a five-year moratorium, from 1972 to 1977, capital punishment w
Capital punishment is receiving some renewed attention in the Republican primary race, largely as a result of questions put to Rick Perry in recent debates, and, additionally, as a
Ask a Catholic neoconservative or the editors of Commonweal what the last "social encyclical" was. They will answer that it was Centisimus Annus. They will tell you that there Pope
The question of whether, and how, legal punishment can be justified has long been a central concern of legal, moral, and political philosophy: what could justify a state in using t
Though “killing as punishment,” to use Hugo Bedau's (2004) striking phrase, is sometimes proposed for serious crimes other than murder, such as treason, or limited to especially he
An account of how state punishment can be justified requires an account of the state, as having the authority to punish, and of crime, as that which is punished. Crime, as socially
When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that "new" and "
The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the c
The question of whether or not it is morally acceptable and even required of a state to execute people raises a broader question of the nature and justification of punishment. Broadly speaking there are three views: punishment is the intentional infliction by an appropriate authority of a penalty for purposes of a) retribution, b) deterrence, or c) reform. These distinguish punishment from personal intimidation and revenge. While it is possible in general to combine a), b) and c) they reflect different perspectives on the basic point of punishment: a) is backward-looking justifying what is to be done by reference to what was done, while b) and c) are forward-looking justifying action by reference to intended future effects. While many argue that capital punishment is likely to deter others from similar offences the main ethical argument for capital punishment is that justice requires or at least permits the infliction of death upon perpetrators of the most serious offences, typically murder.