We suggest you turn to the Tao Teh Ching:
74 Capital Punishment If the people do not fear death, why threaten them with it? If the people do fear death, and if the unlawful be killed, who would dare to execute them? Only the Supreme Executioner kills. To take His place is to set an unskilled man to wield the hatchet of the master carpenter: he rarely escapes chopping off his own hand! -- tr. C. Ganson