Capital Punishment

It randomly occurred to me that one of the standard anti-capital-punishment arguments is way off base. Specifically, people often say that by employing capital punishment, society puts itself on the same level as murderers. That we have some kind of moral imperative not to kill, and that we cannot expect others not to kill if our very legal system does it.

The problem here is as follows: the exact same logic would say that by jailing people, society puts itself on the same level as kidnappers, and that we cannot expect others not to forcibly confine people if our legal system does. This can also apply to fines, or indeed any negative consequence imaginable.

So unless you're advocating no punishment at all, stop trying to hold society to a higher standard in terms of punishments. The whole point of a punishment is that it's something bad.

Please note that I am not pretending to address all anti-capital-punishment arguments here, just this one.