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The Justification of Capital Punishment

Capital punishment, in recent years, has been an important issue of debate both in the fields of moral philosophy and criminal law. The most significant moral controversy concerned with the problem of capital punishment is—whether the infliction of the death penalty is fair and permissible against serious and harmful crimes, and on what grounds is it justified? The idea of punishment raises some significant moral questions such as:

  1. Why is punishment necessary? How is it justified?
  2. How is the state justified in inflicting penalties on criminals?
  3. Does the threat of punishment actually prevent, or deter other potential criminals from committing crimes?
  4. What are the grounds, if any, on which capital punishment ...

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