Class enemies and criminals representing a danger to society should be put to death. Reeducation through labor isn’t always enough.

An unfortunate necessity for the success of the revolution and the security of the socialist state under siege.

When the threat of counter-revolution has ended that necessity will vanish with it.

The majority of anti-social behaviour is caused externally through poor socialization and adverse life events. With the advent of modern drug-assisted psychotherapy, criminal reform is becoming much easier after the fact as well (IF THEY BOTHERED TO USE IT).

Punishment should be carried out by having the perpetrator restore damages to the victim. Incarceration should be a last resort for those threatening imminant violence anyways.

The death penalty is essentially a statement that reforming some individuals is impossible, which I don’t believe will remain true for long due to coming advances in neuroscience.

I think it’s cultural. I’m personally against it and it hasn’t been part of my culture for a long time now, but I can’t really argue whether for or against it for countries where it’s still ongoing in a hypothetical socialism scenario.

Under capitalism, I’m against it because it will be used against people who go against capitalist interests. Under socialism, yes because it will be used against class enemies. But under socialism, I’m also not against using it on serial killers, mass rapists and other heinous crimes

Only in the post-revolutionary period where it’s necessary to execute capitalists, generals, police members. Basically, you’ll need a period where you have to rid the new society of those who committed atrocities against the people. It’s normal procedure in Socialist countries.

Then abolish it. Criminals should be put to work, they have a debt to society. If they can’t be reformed by labor or other means they contribute more to society by working rather than being executed. Also, there’s always the problem of someone being wrongly convicted and executed, there’s no way to correct that.

I am against the death penalty.

IMO We can’t call ourselves a civilized society if we are executing our own people. The most loathsome citizen is still part of our community, and a product of us.

Also, killing innocent people wrongfully convicted then later discovered to be innocent happens more often than anyone should be comfortable with.

Capitalists should never be allowed to have the power to pass the death penalty on workers. Socialists should never allow the power to pass the death penalty on capitalists and counter-revolutionaries to be taken away from them.

Under capitalism all “law” enforcement measures are just class war in disguise. In a post revolutionary situation things are different.

I do think every person is capable of being rehabilitated but some people have caused so much harm that the value in their rehabilitation is greatly outweighed by the value in using their example as warning. Why try to fix a drug dealing and prostitution kingpin? What gain does it do to just warehouse them?

I really appreciate the Chinese model for corruption, “we caught you on this crime which gives us the right to kill you but if you tell us every other crime you can go to prison for the rest of your life. but if we find anything that you didn’t tell us you are dead.”

Corruption is a 2 person crime. So if you can catch one corrupt person and convince them to confess to all their other corruption they will lead you to their co-conspirators and each of their conspirators may have other corrupt contacts. By making them “an offer they can’t refuse” they take down an entire system of corruption one individual at a time. Having the death penalty available is not just a good deterrence it is a powerful investigative tool.

I understand that during the most violent periods of the revolution it may be the only option for dealing with counter-revolutionaries. However once a stable sociaist state has been established with a prison system then there is no longer any material justification for it. All arguments for capital punishment under these conditions amount to an emotional desire to see someone bad punished. Functionally speaking capital punishment and life imprisonment work the exact same way, by removing a person who’s potential for recidivism is so dangerous to the population they must be removed permanently. The only difference is that life imprisonment can be corrected if there is a mistake (Which the state will inevitably make, to believe otherwise is idealism) capital punishment can’t. Ask yourself is the death of an innocent person worth your personal satisfaction at seeing someone who deserves to die be killed rather than simply imprisoned for life? For me the answer is obviously no. If yes then would you be ok if that innocent person was you or your family member? It’s understandable to want to see evil people punished as harshly as possible. I do too. But it’s an emotional desire. It’s not materialist and materially speaking if the option of life imprisonment exists then capital punishment is unjustifiable due to it’s irrevocable nature with regard to the inevitable mistakes of the state.

For a capitalist society, it should be abolished because it’s one less tool that the bourgeoisie can use to oppress workers. It won’t stop the killing of course, but removing a legal means of worker murder is a good thing.

For a socialist society, it should be reserved for corrupt party members who have profoundly betray the masses. Party members who climb beyond a certain rank must understand that with great responsibility comes harsh penalties should they be found lacking. Those who are found to greatly harm the masses will be handed a sentence befitting that great harm.