ABSTRACT
We have considered the two principal justifications offered in support of capital punishment: retribution and deterrence. We now consider three additional purposes that often are advanced. The first is incapacitation, or protecting society from the risk that individuals convicted of a capital crime will reoffend. The second concerns the relative financial costs of capital punishment and long-term imprisonment, with the question being whether executing offenders is cheaper than incarcerating them for life. The third is that victims’ survivors—their spouses, parents, children, and intimate others—are owed the offender’s execution in the name of justice and to provide a sense of closure as they struggle to cope with the devastating emotional consequences of losing a loved one to murder.
