New York City, 6.44am. Brian Thompson, the CEO of the largest health insurance company in America, is heading to an investors' meeting. As he walks down the pavement, a masked man steps out behind him and fires three times. The CEO is killed, but the murderer escapes, fleeing into the morning traffic.

Five days later a suspect - 26-year-old Luigi Mangione - was arrested at a McDonald's. Now, prosecutors in New York are seeking the death penalty. According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, this was a "premeditated, cold-blooded assassination".¹ But does anyone deserve to die for their crimes?

Historically, capital punishmentPunishment by death. was common. In 18th-century Britain, 222 crimes were punishable by death, including minor offences such as cutting down trees and robbing a rabbit warren!²

But, even at the time, critics made the case against capital punishment. For instance, the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham argued that the death penalty was cruel and irrational. After all, once a criminal has been killed, they can no longer repay society for their crime.

More recently, the Nobel-Prize-winning author Albert Camus wrote: "what then is capital punishment but the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated it may be, can be compared?"³

Around the world, 55 countries have kept the death penalty.⁴ Those in favour argue that severe penalties for murder deter other criminals and also prevent re-offending, as the dead cannot commit further crimes.

In America, 53% of the population remain in favour of the death penalty. But support falls lower for younger generations, with 58% of Gen Z opposing capital punishment.⁵

Since Mangione's arrest he has become a folk hero for those who think health insurance companies are exploitative. The suspect's lawyers argue that the government is "defending the broken, immoral and murderous healthcare industry".⁶

New York prosecutors might want to make an example of the CEO's assassin. But, if it was wrong to murder Brian Thompson, can it be right to murder his killer?

Is it wrong for a state to kill?

Yes: The death penalty is vengeance rather than justice. If someone is killed after committing a murder, they can never repay society for their crime.

No: Capital punishment is legal in 55 countries around the world and the majority of the US population support the death penalty. If someone takes a life, they deserve to lose their own.

Or... Mangione was wrong to take the law into his own hands. The fact that he has become a folk hero shows the injustice at the heart of the American healthcare system.

Capital punishment - Punishment by death.