- Capital punishment is yet another hotly contested issue today. Many arguments have been advanced for and against it. In addition to human rights considerations, the opponents of capital punishment contend that capital punishment is not necessary since the purposes of the criminal justice system, incapacitation, rehabilitation, deference and retribution, can all be well accomplished without death penalty. Imprisonment, they argue, is sufficient to incapacitate an evil doer. Capital punishment deprives the convicted of the opportunity to rehabilitate and to become a member of the society (notwithstanding research findings that American rehabilitative programs over the past few decades have invariably failed). In addition, there is no indication that capital punishment serves to deter future criminals—an argument often made by the advocators of capital punishment. This seems to be supported by the Chinese observation that “death will not intimidate those who are not afraid to death”. The only justification for death penalty, therefore, appears to be retributive in nature: the society has a need to express its outrage or disapproval over certain conducts.
Capital punishment in its practice has a lot of problems too. Studies have shown that in the United States, death penalty has not been fairly administered. For instance, black defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death than white defendants for the same kind of crime. There is no effective mechanism to prevent an overly zealous prosecutor from abusing his discretion and even sacrificing the innocent in order to get a conviction. Also, the judicial review on death conviction is very costly and often takes close to ten years before a death row inmate runs out of all appeal revenues.
Capital punishment has been challenged on several grounds. The most commonly used legal argument, which so far has failed to persuade the Supreme Court, is that capital punishment violates the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution against “unusual and cruel punishment”.
Death penalty proponents believe capital punishment is part of the American criminal system and even part of her culture. They often point to the statistics showing correlation between low crime rate and death sentence. In addition, they also argue that imprisonment is wasteful as those jailed hard-core criminals are supported by tax dollars.
It is a tough question that defies uniformed solutions. My position on the issue has flipped and flopped over time. It can be very personal too. A few years ago, I was a staunch opponent of capital punishment. However, my view was changed after a very close friend of my family was brutally murdered by a group of monsters. I couldn’t imagine a punishment short of death would bring justice to her.
A couple of years ago, I visited a maximum security prison in New England, where the most abominable human beings are kept. That is the most depressing place I have ever been. Their response to the visitors, hysteric shrieks, chilling cackling, and sickening screams, were reminiscent of wild wolves or animals who are only humanoids at most. Many inmates were in shackles, 23 hours a day. Their only “recreation” hour—which had to be earned-- was to be spent in a cage, where they can breathe some fresh air, with their hands still cuffed from the back. For those who vegetate their life away like that, death is no doubt much more humane and merciful than lifelong confinement.
Fengzi