The Bible teaches that capital punishment is an appropriate penalty for some very serious crimes [Exodus 21:12, 22-23].  It is the ultimate act of civil government in fulfilling its God given role to protect the citizenry from individuals who do not esteem human life.  Thus it has been used in the past against those who have committed first degree murder and certain other crimes.  In the Bible it was instituted in Genesis 9:6 as a foundational principle for the very existence of human government.  Mankind (Government) was authorized to take the life of a murderer expressly because the murderer had no regard for his victim as one who had been made in the image of God.  Capital punishment of the violent criminal honors the uniqueness of human life and extols its sanctity.  To eliminate it is not humanitarian virtue, it is a rejection of the truths that there is a God and that man is not just an animal, but is made in God’s image.  [Numbers 35:19; Genesis 1:26-27]