Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)

But 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? For there to be equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life. -Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)

Camus's view is limited to the criminal himself and tries to elicit sympathy for him. Left out of consideration is the criminal's victims, not past victims but potential future victims. Not that capital punishment is justified in every case, but there is more to be considered than the feelings of the condemned man.