Quote Originally Posted by Pindar
As far as cause is concerned. My point wasn't concerned with justifications, but the act of rebellion itself. Rebellion is an offensive act. It is an attack upon the existing system. This is true formally as well as true historically as the rebels were first to draw blood. The British were trying to maintain the status quo.
As much as you may like to, you can't dismiss the reasons or justification. That would be like calling all killing murder regardless of its reasons, like self-defense. If you're trying to ask how I feel about armed rebellions in general, then I tend not to like them because they are bloody messy affairs. But, as is the case in the American Revolution, there can be just cause. It's not a black and white issue.

What seems to be missing here is any reflection on the nature of justice. I have argued that justice is at core an equity relation. An unbalance can serve as an injustice. This is the rationale for punishment. Regarding murder, the only way to properly meet the demands of justice and give redress is for the sacrifice of the guilty. Now objections to CP have been:

-It's barbaric: which is emotive
-The innocent may also be killed: which is the same in cases of war (friendly fire, collateral damage) which creates an inconsistency regarding state sponsored killing.
-It isn't necessary given the threat is removed through imprisonment: which doesn't respond to the base inequity caused through the original act of murder.

None of these objections seem to offer any counter to what justice actually entails.
Your third point is the one that doesn't stand. Firstly, killing a murderer doesn't achieve equity- the victim is still dead and I doubt many value the life of a murderer as equal with that of an innocent. Or, what of serial killers? You can only execute someone once- what about the other victims? Where's the equity?

Pushing that aside, what is the benefit to this ethereal notion of "equity"? What does killing a prisoner achieve that isn't achieved by their permanent incarceration?