Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

The debate about capital punishment is one that has troubled ethical waters in contemporary times. The basic question in this regard is whether it is just, appropriate, moral, or even effective to carry out capital punishment as a means of checking crime. No one has been able to offer a perfect knock-down argument for either side, as to whether it is moral or not. This is why capital punishment is said to be one of the most important ethical issues of the twenty-first century. The thrust of this research is therefore to make an ethical critique of Mill?s perspective on capital punishment in human society. The study employs the qualitative research approach by basically using secondary sources of data collection which include books, journals, magazines, scholarly papers and the internet. The work found out that the capital punishment has not succeeded in stamping crime out of human society. The work therefore suggests among other measures, the adoption of the reformative approach as means of punishing crime; that punishment should be designed to correct and rehabilitate; that the right to life should be respected always and that other measures be adopted in order to curb crime in society rather than the Capital Punishment.

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