In this age of political correctitude the sheer, flagant hypocrisy of opposition to the death penalty is forgotten. When the state no longer uses its defining prerogative of the monopoly of violence, capital punishment does not go away, disappear, vanish or melt into thin air. It falls into the hands of a collection of others, who participate in no antecedent judicial proceedings.
Critics forget, if they ever knew, that capital punishment is also legal retribution.
The state stands in for the victim and his relatives, to do what otherwise private 'justice' would eventually do. To claim, as many do, that retribution has no place in the carriage of justice not only reveal an ignorance of the history of law but also denies the natural human yearning for revenge. The choice is retribution by the state or private 'justice'. Known criminals are usually the victims, resisting arrest or attempting to escape or maybe shoved out of a van. Criminals are set up to kill each other.