Here's an interesting little tidbit that just popped up in my news ticker a few days ago (I've been meaning to write this blog for a while): 2 men stoned to death in Iran, third escapes. It sure is nice to be reminded that as a world, we are still stuck in the stone ages. It really is barbaric to mete out capital punishment for such menial crimes... and I'm not just talking about Iran here. Capital punishment is an awful relic of times that we should have let pass long ago; yet we still cling to it in a society that pretends to be advanced and affluent and cultured.
It may be true that some people really deserve to die... but what of the person who thought up the idea of capital punishment, who is almost certainly responsible for more deaths than any serial killer or rapist in history? In the U.S. alone, 4,955 persons have been executed since 1930 (according to the Department of Justice website). If anyone deserves execution, it's that guy.
But here's the thing: killing is not the answer. No person alive today has any right to decide the fate of another human being's life. A law degree does not qualify one to play with someone's life. To sentence a person to death is to abandon all hope in the good of humanity. Who is to say that the victim of capital punishment can't change their life around. As a Christian, I must believe in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. To say that a criminal deserves to die, we first need to tear out or ignore all of the New Testament books written by the apostle Paul (which would be about half of them), who was a terrorist and a murderer.
Now I don't mean to say that we should open up every prison gate in the country and let all of our captives go free, trusting that Jesus has made all of them perfect saints and good writers. I'm simply saying that we cannot continue to kill people under the guise of capital punishment. Redemptive violence does not work. As Jesus said, if we operate with an eye-for-an-eye philosophy, it won't be long before the whole world is blind. And I like my eyes.
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I used to live in Illinois. Our previous governor--(no, not the one who just got impeached, the one who went to prison)decided that the death penalty could not be fairly implemented, and so commuted all of the death sentences, emptying death row.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of the class-based arguments against the death penalty?
Dr. Posler
"No person alive today has any right to decide the fate of another human being's life."
ReplyDeleteIn the same vein, does any person have the right to decide the fate of another human being's liberty and property?
If not, what is the role of government?
What is a just punishment for a murderer, rapist, serial-killer, or mass terrorist? They made a conscious choice to disregard the rights of another innocent individuals life. This is not equal to the jury-decided punishment of death for a guilty criminal.
I agree that the death penalty should be eliminated, but based on the practical arguement that it is hard to be certain of a defendant's guilt and that the punishment is irreversible. It is morally superior to let a guilty man go unpunished than to execute an innocent man.
I must admit... this was a blog that I banged out on a time crunch. I didn't really have the time to fully collect my thoughts or sharpen my rhetoric, and the piece leaves much to be desired in the way of logical argument. That's my bad.
ReplyDeleteBut, I would love to discuss capital punishment in class sometime. I always find it at least interesting to discuss controversial issues.