Capital Punishment A Philosophical Ethical Discussion and Analysis

Capital Punishment, or the death penalty, is an issue of long standing, and one which is rooted in history and ethics. For example, we can see its consideration from the time of St. Augustine when he cited in his Confessions: Amidst these offenses of foulness and violence, and so many inequities, are sins of men who are, on the whole, making proficiency; which by those that judge rightly are, after the rule of perfection, discommended with the persons commended, upon hope of future fruit, as in the green braid of growing corn. And there are some, resembling offenses of foulness or violence which yet are no sins; because they offend neither Thee, our Lord God, nor human society ... These things I, being ignorant of, scoffed at those Thy holy servants and Prophets. And what gained I by scoffing at them, but to be scoffed at by Thee, being insensibly and step-by-step drawn onto those follies, as to being that a fig tree wept when it was plucked and the tree, its mother, shed milky tears ... For if anyone hungered, not a Manichaean should ask for any, that more so ...