The Death Penalty

Does any society have the right to take the life of one of its citizens? In many countries around the world, capital punishment is legal and practiced. In others it is considered barbaric and wrong. Under what circumstances and in what ways should a government have the right to pass a law that kills? Certainly the opportunity for rehabilating a person into a productive member of society is taken away, and there is a chance of a wrongfuld eath. On the other hand, perhaps executing someone wrongly is better than imprisoning them wrongly. Part of the problem is that no facts are certain, much less any philosophy. To better understand this, notice how arguments change when you change the facts. Notice how the impact of some facts is contingent on the impact of others. Obviously, rebutals are possible, but this just gives some idea.

Key points in this debate

• No society has the right to take a life. Murder is murder, even if the State is committing the crime.
• capital punishment hurts the family of the prisoner more than the prisoner him or her self.
• In countries where capital punishment is practiced, it is often the poor, the uneducated and the minority groups who die, not the worst offenders.
• There is no evidence that capital punishment acts as a deterrent to prevent further crimes.
• Murders tend to be spur of the moment crimes, they are not rational acts and therefore the offender does not think about the consequences.
• capital punishment lowers all those involved to the level of the murderer.
• Courts are reluctant to convict if capital punishment is the likely outcome.
• There is always the possibility of error. It is too late after someone is dead to find this out.

• Society must protect its individuals, even if this means that one must die to protect others.
• Society has always had the right to kill, as it does when it wages war.
• The Bible says "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
• Taxpayers should not have to support criminals living in comfort for years.
• Often, "life imprisonment" means only a short time, then the criminal is released and is free to offend again.
• Justice demands that criminals receive a punishment in keeping with their offence. Therefore a person who takes a life should lose their life.
• capital punishment is the only penalty severe enough to make criminals think twice before committing major crimes.
• The chance of error is very small given a thorough and fair justice system.

Facts and figures

It is interesting to consider some facts and figures related to the death penalty. According to Amnesty International more than half the countries in the world have now abolished the Death Penalty in law or in practice. More than two countries a year on average have abolished the death penalty in law since 1976. Of those who retain the death penalty many have not used it for many years. Once abolished the death penatly is rarely introduced. Since 1985 twenty-five countries have abloished the death penalty while only four have re-introduced it. Of those four Nepal has since re-abolished the death penalty and there have been no executions in the other three. During 1996 4,272 prisoners are known to have been executed in 39 countries but more than 3,500 of these cases were in China. AI point out that the real figure is certainly much higher than this. In the USA 45 prisoners were executed in 1996 and more than 3000 were under sentence of death at the end of that year.

Here is a look the somewhat arbitrary history of the death penalty

Places	Offenses	Punishments
Hebrew	transgressions affecting whole community	stoning mob beating
Babylon	selling bad beer adultery sex with mother accepting pawns from slaves, minors perjury in murder trials unproveable murder claim kidnapping a boy helping slaves escape looting not capturing rebels in your bar a non-temple priestess in a bar poor house carpentry father's carpentry kills a boy stealing sacred property inability to pay for stolen property robbery of a free person	the ususal drowning burning
Assyria	being a bad barber	the ususal
Egpyt	injuring a cat	the ususal
Greece	transgressions affecting whole community	stoning mob beating forced suicide
Rome	singing unruly songs Christianity immorality in vestal virgins the usual	beheading feeding to lions gladiator battles crucifixion
India	stealing a royal elephant	the ususal
Middle Ages Europe	the usual		hanging drawing and quartering disemboweling mangling on wheels boiling alive pressing under weights forced suicide
early America	the usual	firing squad hanging
late America	murder treason	gas chamber lethal injection electric chair
modern Afghanistan and Iran	murder drinking adultery	throat slitting et. al.

For sites presenting more detailed coverage of this issue, see below.

E.B. Williams Law Library: This has links to a number of sites including those with primary legal resource material.

Archdiocese of Boston: Arguments against capital punishment from Bernard Cardinal - Archbishop of Boston.

BCCLA Position Paper: This site has a comprehensive series of arguments about why we should not have capital punishment.

Amnesty International: An extensive list from Amnesty International of countries and their attitudes towards the death penalty.

Derechos - Human Rights: A list of links to sites with discussion on the death penalty.

Ethics Updates: This list includes suggestions for class discussions and exercises on the topic.

A Student Essay: This is an essay from a student on the apparent inequity in application of capital punishment between blacks and whites.

Mormons.org: A biblical justification for capital punishment from a religous group. Obviously any arguments would need to be treated in light of the philosophy of the group.

Courtroom Television Network: A case study of the Karla Faye Tucker issue.

Forum

Death penalty - right or wrong? What does it depend on? How can we fix it? What facts are pertinent? Share your thoughts and read those of others.

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