Capital Punishment Is Premeditated Murder

By Pratap Antony

04 March, 2015
Countercurrents.org

When the state orders an execution, of a human being we don’t know, we are detached, because it is disconnected from our own reality. Peace-loving, non-violent and moral people accept the termination of a humans’ life by the State without condemnation.

And because execution is decreed by a court and by an impersonal government order, we do not see ourselves as being responsible for the actual killing of another human being. But we are!

We are complicit in a murder ourselves! We are complicit though it is a state-sponsored execution. We are the State. And we have blood on our hands!

Lewis Lawes, warden of Sing Sing prison in NY in the 1920s and 30s, put it so well, "As if one crime of such nature, done by a single man, acting individually, can be expiated by a similar crime done by all men, acting collectively."

Premeditated murder - Murder is against the law. This is a fundamental law based upon our sense of morality. A human should not take the life of another because it violates a natural right to life. Therefore whenever the State takes a life with the death penalty, we all are party to the killing. We all are responsible for the immoral act of taking a life. We get away with murder!

“The murder that is depicted as a horrible crime is repeated in cold blood, remorselessly” Beccaria, C. de, Traité des Délits et des Peines, 1764

Revenge and Retribution is not justice – A criminal may be a serial killer and rapist who has violated other people's rights, yet execution seems like revenge. Reprisal! Its like - I will do to you what you did to someone else because it was wrong of you to do that. Vengeance and retribution is definitely not justice. Nor is ‘tit for tat’.

We don’t punish a criminal with the same act he committed. We wouldn’t personally torture a torturer or rape a rapist or batter a batterer. So how could we kill a killer!

A revenge killing by the State does not bring back anything. It does not bring back a loved one, nor does terminating the life of a criminal bring "justice" and "peace" to the state. It just makes us killers too.

Death is not a civilized way to punish a criminal. Capital punishment is not a punishment, it is ‘the end’ for the perpetrator. The criminals’ life is put out, not punished.

“To take a life when a life has been lost is revenge, it is not justice”. Attributed to Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Though a murderer may have taken the life of innocents, it does not make us more human to take the life of a murderer. And even if the death penalty is viewed as a form of justice, it does not make anything better for the victims’ families. It’s the family that is punished. Their pain and loss is not eased. And they do not deserve to be punished like that.

And what if the court is wrong and has passed a judgement that is incorrect due to lack of evidence and trust. The death penalty. The order to kill, is irreversible. The prisoner will die.

“The most common and most cogent argument against capital punishment is that sooner or later, innocent people will get killed, because of mistakes or flaws in the justice system”.

“The death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state and will inevitably claim innocent victims. As long as human justice remains fallible, the risk of executing the innocent can never be eliminated” - Amnesty International

The death penalty is not a deterrent – The United Nations conducted a survey to determine the relation between the death penalty and homicide rates in 1988 and updated it in 1996. They concluded that “...research has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment. The key to real and true deterrence is to increase the likelihood of detection, arrest and conviction.” A report from Amnesty International, USA

Apparently, the death penalty doesn't deter violent crimes; or a person who is mentally unsound, or a murderer, from committing murder. The likelihood of being caught seems to be a deterrent.

“Statistics show that the death penalty leads to a brutalisation of society and an increase in murder rate. In the USA, more murders take place in states where capital punishment is allowed. In 2010, the murder rate in states where the death penalty has been abolished was 4.01 per cent per 100,000 people. In states where the death penalty is used, the figure was 5.00 per cent. These calculations are based on figures from the FBI. "The gap between death penalty states and non-death penalty states rose considerably from 4 per cent difference in 1990 to 25 per cent in 2010.” Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report, from Death Penalty Information Center.

Imprisonment for the-whole-natural-life is better – On a more malevolent note, the death sentence is an easy way out for a murderer. Dying is an easier way out than living and suffering for a crime that has been committed. Being imprisoned and living and suffering for the crime that has been committed is more just.

Scapegoat scheme – The Justice system in every country you can think of, is not perfect. It is difficult to separate the guilty from the innocent. Until there is a fool-proof way of making a judgement of guilt, we need to send convicted criminals to jail so they can be released if they are not guilty, as has happened to several prisoners who have served many years in jail.

“To make a scapegoat scheme effective it would be necessary to go through the appearance of a legitimate legal process and to present evidence which convinced the public that the person being punished deserved their punishment”. BBC Ethics

JNU students have courted arrest, persecution and brutalisation by the State for exercising their views on Capital punishment on 9th February 2016, using as an example, Mohamed Afzal, who we know as Afzal Guru who was hanged on 9th February 2013. His was a scapegoat conviction. He was not among those who attacked parliament on December 13, 2001; all five of the attackers were killed during the attack. The circumstantial evidence against Afzal Guru was said to be ‘conspiring in the attack’. Here is the conclusion of a report in ‘The Hindu’ Sunday, February 10th,2013 by Anjali Modi, who had covered the Parliament attack case trial since 2002. “On Saturday morning, a man was hanged who was not guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Mohamed Afzal died without his case ever being heard properly, turning on its head the idea that the rule of law, due process and justice are embedded in the Indian system.”

The death penalty should be abolished - Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 2014 “the United Nations adopted resolution 63/168, which is a reaffirmation of its call for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty (62/149) passed in December the previous year. The resolution calls for states to freeze executions with a view to eventual abolition”.

What we must do- is guard ourselves from degrading ourselves by being cruel, inhumane and brutalised as individuals, and as a society.

We must be consciously aware of our own moral guidance system. And follow our own natural law and our natural instinct towards fairness and doing what is right and good, and stand up for our right of free expression.

Pratap Antony is a Passive activist.Active pacifist Blogs pratapantony.blogspot.in, reformcommunications.blogspot.in