I'm strongly against the death penalty. But cases such as Mussolini are an exception. Not because he deserved it though. You could claim many people deserve to die but we degrade ourselves and our society by making and acting on such judgements.

But if Mussolini had fallen into the hands of allied forces, he would quite likely have ended up returning to power. The partisans had a chance to chop the head off Italian fascism, and they took it. Good call.