I like the topic and the article, but on this point I would disagree with Thomas and David. Small, community sized government can, and often does (at least historically) use the death penalty as a way to maintain order in a community. It was very effective at preventing repeated homicide and discouraging future behavior. The problems with state execution in the current system and large government is not a correlative issue. The death penalty existed long before we had large governments and a perverse legal system.