The Vigilante.
Sunday, March 27, 2011 @ 6:38 pm.
It's argued that retribution is used in a unique way in the case of the death penalty. Crimes other than murder do not receive a punishment that mimics the crime - for example rapists are not punished by sexual assault, and people guilty of assault are not ceremonially beaten up.
...the state's power deliberately to destroy innocuous (though guilty) life is a manifestation of the hidden wish that the state be allowed to do anything it pleases with life.
- George Kateb, The Inner Ocean 1992
The murder that is depicted as a horrible crime is repeated in cold blood, remorselessly
- Beccaria, C. de, Traité des Délits et des Peines, 1764
Because most countries - but not all - do not execute people publicly, capital punishment is not a degrading public spectacle. But it is still a media circus, receiving great publicity, so that the public are well aware of what is being done on their behalf.
However this media circus takes over the spectacle of public execution in teaching the public lessons about justice, retribution, and personal responsibility for one's own actions.
All quotes taken from
BBC Ethics Guide: Capital Punishment