"As far as the ritual taking of life that capital punishment was - I have never understood how Christians reconcile that with their 'Christian' principles - perhaps you could help me with that one."

The wiki entry on punishment suggests the word may actually derive from the Phoenician method of punishment -crucifixion -which was adopted by the Roman Empire and used to kill Jesus .

" Latin punire possibly was inspired by the Phoenician method of execution by means of crucifixion. Therefore the Carthaginian crosses were called signae poenae "signs of the Phoenicians"