If we're not responsible for our choices neither blame nor praise make any sense. If we are not free agents, then we are determined and therefore not responsible for our behavior, either good or bad. Crime is not pathological, deserving rehabilitation, but moral, deserving punishment. The goal of justice is penal, not remedial, moral, not therapeutic. Goodness demands protecting the innocent in society.
Capital punishment is to the whole society what self-defense is to the individual.
The Ethics of Life and Death J.P. Moreland, p. 115. C. Objections to retributionism 1. Arguments that prove too much. Many arguments against capital punishment prove too much because they apply with equal force against any punishment at all. Capital punishment is applied unfairly.