A citizen group sends letters to the governor of a southern state and asks her to reconsider stopping the execution of a man on death row convicted of murdering a police officer. The governor declines, stating that the purpose of the criminal justice system is to remove this convicted murderer from society so that everyone else can be protected. What type of justification for punishment is used by the governor?

The type of punishment justification used is retribution. The governor is justifying that the criminal justice system is using death row penalty for murder a cop. This means that the criminal justice system is requiring the offender to suffer in return with a proportion similar to his offence or crime. This is different from vengeance because is not personal, does not involve pleasure at a third person cost and retribution is applied to those who do wrong and it has defined limits.