Note 20 — CHAP. II.
Reading edition
The punishment of death is not authorized by any right.—If it were so, how could it be reconciled to the maxim, that a man has no right to kill himself?
The punishment of death is a war of a whole nation against a citizen, whose destruction is considered as necessary or useful to the public good.—If I can demonstrate that it is neither necessary nor useful, I shall have gained the cause of humanity.—If the experience of all ages be not sufficient to prove that the punishment of death has never prevented determined men from injuring society—if the example of the Romans—if twenty years' reign of Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, be not sufficient, let us consult human nature in proof of my assertion.
The death of a criminal is a terrible, but momentary spectacle; and therefore a less efficacious method of deterring others, than the continued example of a man deprived of his liberty, and condemned to repair by his labour, the injury done to Society. A condition so miserable is a much more powerful preventive than the fear of death, which men always behold in distant obscurity.
Beccaria, cap. 28.