Moral philosophy and ethics

Morality of death penalty has raised a lot of controversy in time, due to the concern of different thinkers for the permissibility and justification of the execution of criminals. Two eminent thinkers who put forth strong opposing points-of-view on the subject are Ernest van den Haag and Mark Costanzo.

Ernest van den Haag agrees with death penalty and considers it moral and justified. The circumstances under which he considers death penalty moral and justified relate to its purpose of doing justice and deter crime. His argument goes further, stating that as long as criminals are the persons who do not allow innocents to live, it is only fair to suppress them - as a society - or in other words it is morally wrong to allow a murderer to live. Van den Haag takes into account the conditions for murder, for instance poverty, control over ones actions and societal discrimination (more blacks and poor people are punished). The author acknowledges, with respect to the circumstances of murder that they are not an excuse for crime. The underlying idea is that circumstances or discriminatory conditions do not excuse or make the punishment just. The concept of guilt makes punishment moral, and guilt is perceived as an individual, not a societal characteristic. He argues, in line with Retributive theories that capital punishment is moral as it represents a responsible act on the part of the society who recognizes and deters murder. Moreover, he also supports the argument of deterrence by stating that murder may be reduced if people fear the most extreme and irrevocable form of punishment.

Mark Constanzo discussed the argument of deterrence as well, by stating that "Fear of the execution chamber will restrain potential murderers" (Constanzo, 95). However, the author acknowledges that the reality is different in that murder rates have not decreased but instead they increased. Constanzo is against death penalty, and believes that people are perfectible and may change. He used the argument of discrimination against capital punishment by stating that wealth, social status, race etc. play an important role in convictions. Moreover Constanzo used moral and religious arguments against death penalty. For instance he considers the practices related and the methods applied to kill murderers (lethal injection, hanging, burning, poisoning etc.) as dehumanizing and sinful for the individual and society.