The author of the article puts forward and attempts to justify the thesis according to which the death penalty – in the strict sense of the term – is identified only and exclusively with killing the criminal, the killing being the punishment for the most serious crimes, first of all murder. Killing a criminal in defense of the society (ultima ratio) is a shape of the action that is closer to actions carried out by the state as part of an ethically justified war. In the justification of this thesis the author refers both to the history of the debate on capital punishment (e.g. C. Beccaria) and to its modern stage (Evangelium vitae).