It is intended to make you think about why an execution is different.
For starters, if we accept state sanctioned killings, then any argument that a life is inviolable goes out the window. With capital punishment, the state is saying that taking lives can be acceptable.
> Humanity has been distinguishing between "murder" and "killing" for millennia
Yes, and a major distinguishing factor has tended to be premeditation and intent. An execution is of a nature that would fit in the worst category of murder if it wasn't for the fact that it was ordered by the state.
An execution has all the hallmarks of something that would tick every possible mark of a particularly heinous murder otherwise. Yet even when we know that innocent people get executed too, it is tolerated when carried out by a state.
For starters, if we accept state sanctioned killings, then any argument that a life is inviolable goes out the window. With capital punishment, the state is saying that taking lives can be acceptable.
> Humanity has been distinguishing between "murder" and "killing" for millennia
Yes, and a major distinguishing factor has tended to be premeditation and intent. An execution is of a nature that would fit in the worst category of murder if it wasn't for the fact that it was ordered by the state.
An execution has all the hallmarks of something that would tick every possible mark of a particularly heinous murder otherwise. Yet even when we know that innocent people get executed too, it is tolerated when carried out by a state.