Camus's view is similar to that of Cesare Beccaria and the Marquis de Sade, the latter having also argued that murder premeditated and carried out by the state was the worst kind.
Although Camus approved of conducting the executions in private he argued that it removed the element of deterrence and rendered the death penalty as merely a means for the state to dispose of those whom it saw as irremediable.
Without serving a purpose Camus argued that capital punishment is reduced to an act of revenge that only breeds further violence, fueled only by sadism and perpetuated by tradition.
In such civilizations Camus states that the death penalty was usually administered by the Church in order to deprive the convicted of the divine gift of life.
Camus proposed that France lead the way for the rest of the world by adopting a trial period of ten years in which capital punishment be replaced with labor for life.
As a half-measure Camus suggested that the option of self-administered lethal injection (a modern equivalent of hemlock in Ancient Greece) would at least be a first step in a more humane direction.