The issue of capital punishment is a very wide one; it has been discussed for centuries by philosophers, theologians, legal scholars, social scientists and reformers of all kinds. These discussions have involved a variety of types of reasoning: some are purely theoretical, some are highly technical, statistical or, at a further remove, methodological analyses. But they have always revolved around a simple, basic question: for or against? This is basically a moral question; because of its general character, because it has to do with moral considerations of a rather general nature for abolishing or retaining a legal institution, it also presents a problem for moral and legal philosophy.