Is the Death Penalty a Legitimate Form of Punishment?

Is the death penalty ever a legitimate form of punishment? With this essay, I aim to refute the most popular arguments in favour of the death penalty. Obviously, the word-limit precludes my discussing the cases for and against in great depth; therefore, I will restrict myself to an examination of the state-sanctioned use of capital punishment for capital crime (murder). In his Speech in Favour of Capital Punishment , J.S. Mill puts forward a forceful …

…the Death Penalty, – URL=http://ethics.acusd.edu/socialethics/Punishment/Powerpoint/Punishment/sId001.htm Arthur Koestler and CH Rolph, Hanged by the Neck (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1961). John Stuart Mill, Speech In Favour of Capital Punishment (1868), anthologised in Applied Ethics, ed. Peter Singer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986). Michael L Radelet and Ronald L Akers, Deterrence and the Death Penalty: The Views of the Experts – URL=http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/dp/dppapers/mike.deterrence