> The main job of a judicial system is to appear just to people.

Agree 100%. This is also the only form of argument in favor of capital punishment that has ever made me stop and think about my stance. I.e. we have capital punishment because without it we may get vigilante justice that is much worse.

Now, whether that's how it would actually play out is a different discussion, but it did make me stop and think for a moment about the purpose of a justice system.

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andyferris 7 hours ago | parent [-]

I’ve never heard of vigilante justice against someone already sentenced to prison for life, just because they were sentenced in a place without capital punishment?

(I mean - people get killed in prison sometimes, I suppose, but it’s not really like vigilante justice on the streets is causing a breakdown in society in Australia, say…)

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shiroiuma 5 hours ago | parent [-]

It's probably rather difficult and risky to enact vigilante justice against someone who's in prison.

I think the problem is with places where they don't have life sentences at all, but rather let murderers back out into society after some time. I don't know if vigilante justice is a problem there in reality, but at least I can see it as a possibility: someone might still be angry that you murdered their relative after 20 years and come kill you when you're released.

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quadtree 5 hours ago | parent [-]

The reference to vigilante justice may be about killing a suspect before they're imprisoned or even tried, such as when a mob storms the local jail. The theory is, if people believe only death can bring justice, and the state doesn't have the death penalty, then the vigilantes will take matters into their own hands. Ergo, the state should have the death penalty.

Having recently done an in-depth review of arguments for and against the death penalty,[1] I can say that this argument is not prominent in the discourse.

[1]: https://fairmind.org/guides/death-penalty

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shiroiuma 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I see; this makes more sense. It's a little hard to imagine these days though, but ages ago, mobs storming the local jail and hanging a suspect wasn't that uncommon.

	▲	aspenmayer 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> ages ago, mobs storming the local jail and hanging a suspect wasn't that uncommon. Sometimes, suspects don't even make it to the jail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ruby_Shoots_Lee_Harvey_Os... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre Uncommon or not, vigilantism is incompatible with justice on a societal level, regardless of any alleged guilt of offenders. Without a showing of evidence, a trial of the accused, and a verdict that withstands judgment, we're left with theories and conjecture, and hatchets long left unburied.