Execution also brings justice for victims' families. Though the state has now taken over the function, the need for just closure for a victim's family nevertheless remains. The victims' families' reactions to the recent Thurston County death penalty trial show they still struggle after 18 years with the injustice of murder. The system let them down. Their murdered relatives were just not important enough.
Execution also protects the social order.
If the state does not uphold justice, citizens will demand it. In time, vigilantes will do what the state cannot or will not. People generally have an innate sense of what is right and wrong, and if the wrong is allowed to prevail for too long, they will take things into their own hands. But vigilante justice is not easily controlled or limited, and it invites further retribution. Moses, the ancient Jewish lawgiver and political leader, set out several principles that have been an integral part of American justice.