Proponents of capital punishment seek to give it a rational and ethical base by claiming that it deters behavior defined as homicidal. Yet, empirical studies have not unequivocally shown that such a deterrence effect results from capital punishment. Some studies, in fact, claim to show a brutalization effect from capital punishment, in that homicides appear to increase in association with highly publicized executions. In the absence of any empirical data that gives value to capital punishment, it can only be viewed as a symbolic exercise of the state's power to define its enemies and assume life-and-death power over them. This tends to affirm the state's right in its own mind and the minds of its citizens to make life-and-death decisions in other areas, such as war, occupational safety, product safety, and environmental protection. The state is presented as being bound by no ethic but the survival of the state and its economic power brokers. An ethic that respects life does not bind the state under this perspective, since it is the state that has the power to determine who will live and who will die. Apparently the state yearns to protect and reinforce such power. A total of 33 references are provided.