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I completely agree with you that the term "evil" is indeed incredibly subjective.  The psychiatrist, Scott Peck, goes about describing various patients in his book People of the Lie in order to understand this term "evil".  In short, he concludes that evil people are self-righteous; therefore, they cannot accept criticism (as it would hurt their narcissism) and they maintain a certain appearance of power even if they don't really do anything worthwhile.  They lack empathy thus seeing people as tools to be manipulated. 

This is a very interesting characterization, I think, because it applies to people.  But as was described in the post, some people may view situations, such as the death penalty, as evil.  So, even though I think Peck's attempt to define evil is a good one and many of the characteristics he uses I myself would attribute to someone I thought to be evil, I believe evil deserves a broader definition.  I wouldn't know where to begin to define evil, but I do believe you'd know it when you see it, regardless of your beliefs/experiences.

Another point Peck makes is that evil is a choice.  This I find more difficult to grasp because I, like hope, believe there is duality in everyone of us; therefore, we all have some good and evil within us.  We all have tendencies to lean towards one or the other, I believe we tend to lean towards the evil side.  If we were all to have a tendency for the good, we would not need institutions or organization to keep us in check, such as the government and religious groups.