> What about justice for the society in which the crime took place?
This for me is one of the strongest arguments against the death penalty. If the state can kill its prisoners and the state's government falls into authoritarian hands, one political faction, the authoritarian faction, can simply kill off those who oppose it. Did the accused commit a crime, a "crime", or do nothing at all? Well, too late to find out.
Of course, an authoritarian government can bring back the death penalty, but at least make it harder for them to hide what they are doing. And the longer your nation goes without the death penalty, the more egregious it is when the authoritarians reinstitute it, the more obvious it is what they're doing.
Looking at history, I'm not sure this is a reasonable argument. Vast numbers of governments have gone down this path, and not only authoritarian ones. Yet there's no need for a 'bad' government to rely on the death penalty or whatever else. Disappearing people is the normal method operandi. It's faster and reduces the chances of somebody becoming a martyr.
And incidentally, indefinite detention without trial or representation, of US citizens, was legalized in 2012 [1]. An initial legal case against it managed to obtain a permanent injunction against indefinitely detaining US citizens. That victory was tossed out by a higher court who ruled that the plaintiffs lacked the standing for a preemptive challenge to the law. So they need to be indefinitely detained, then when released (if ever) they might be allowed to challenge the constitutionality of the law. Great system.
And the worst thing is that those who have been found as state actors to be murdering innocents are not punished. They are not treated like this or simply executed. And neither is the people who voted for them after this crime or part took to them with political funding.
Really makes one wonder what would be just and working society.
Authoritarian boogeyman governments aren't going to death penalty people out of nowhere, they'll have tools and abilities to remove inconvenient people much more quietly.
After all it's much easier to "remove" someone who was "resisting arrest" than go through the bother of a trial.
This for me is one of the strongest arguments against the death penalty. If the state can kill its prisoners and the state's government falls into authoritarian hands, one political faction, the authoritarian faction, can simply kill off those who oppose it. Did the accused commit a crime, a "crime", or do nothing at all? Well, too late to find out.
Of course, an authoritarian government can bring back the death penalty, but at least make it harder for them to hide what they are doing. And the longer your nation goes without the death penalty, the more egregious it is when the authoritarians reinstitute it, the more obvious it is what they're doing.