No state should have the power of life and death over its citizenry and exceptions to rules are not a good idea.
That’s part of the definition of a state: monopoly over organized violence. Even in states where the death penalty is abolished the state still reserves the power to use the military to put down uprisings and that sort of thing. Plus in pretty much all states the officers of the state (the police) have the power to use lethal force. Without that power an outside group could take over by attacking the police.
This. I cannot conceive of a world where everyone peacefully coexists and nobody uses violence to extract advantage (or revenge) from others. That’s fantasy. A warlord will always arise and in time such authority legitimizes and becomes a state. The best we can do is to democratize that authority and spread power around as widely as possible.
That’s part of the definition of a state: monopoly over organized violence. Even in states where the death penalty is abolished the state still reserves the power to use the military to put down uprisings and that sort of thing. Plus in pretty much all states the officers of the state (the police) have the power to use lethal force. Without that power an outside group could take over by attacking the police.
This. I cannot conceive of a world where everyone peacefully coexists and nobody uses violence to extract advantage (or revenge) from others. That’s fantasy. A warlord will always arise and in time such authority legitimizes and becomes a state. The best we can do is to democratize that authority and spread power around as widely as possible.