A thread on a libertarian Google group moved me to pencil in my thoughts on the death penalty and how it should be perceived by libertarians. I don’t see much discussion on this from libertarians. I’ve always meant to write something up on this topic, but for now, some short thoughts.

The death penalty is an issue where I suffered from deficiency of judgment for quite some time before realizing my inconsistency. I never _supported_ a death penalty, yet I never really opposed it either. In a worst case scenario I could live with it. That was once upon a time.

However, that changed a long time ago. My earliest views of the state as a monopolizer of violence led me to understand that anytime you sanction a state to kill its citizenry you are engaging in acquiescence of government institutions by yielding to them the most severe form of violence against humanity. I think we’re all pretty familiar with Rothbard and others on restitution/restorative justice, and should understand that capital punishment as administered _by the state_ is excessive violence by a third party with monopoly power and political interests that supplant individual rights in favor of collective statecraft. The victim – or victim’s survivors – receive no recompense other than knowing that the aggressor has been herded into a 4×8. As it is, a blossoming prison population is symptomatic of the state as a monopolizer of punishment, and the libertarian view of this would be that no purpose is served via prison herding, let alone killing.

In fact, this issue is so important that I see it similar to how I view war: one cannot deviate and be libertarian. To be libertarian is to be anti-state. To be anti-state is to oppose all monopolization of violence on the part of an illegitimate entity. Thus to condone the state as judge, jury, and executor of men is not an acceptable deviation and therefore is not libertarian at all.