PUNISHMENT A CAPITAL IDEA

Capital punishment is a conflict-ridden issue. There is no easy way to resolve the weaponless war that politicians are fighting for their respective sides of the conflict. We can’t, as Americans, ever be wholly united on most issues and capital punishment is most, unquestionably not an exception. This deadlock will, I fear, be yet another scar on the ravage, nonetheless beautiful face of America.

The American past is riddled with shameful unjustifiable evils such as slavery, witch burning, and prohibition. This is said in jest, but the fact is this evil, or wrong doing, is always in the eye of the beholder so only the individual can decide what is right and wrong. We can be certain someone supported slavery at some point in history, and witch burnings must have been unpopular with at least one of the parties involved. So, pleasing everyone never works and when you try to, it only undermines your social and political career.

As for capital punishment, we must examine the different perspectives. One perspective being, society should not be responsible for killing another human being no matter the circumstances. According to the back of a car I once saw, “The solution to overpopulation: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS!” Now I will not argue logic with bumper stickers, but I hope we can agree that this statement, while somewhat comical to the right audience, should never be passed into law.
I am a man who sees the value of moderation and finding a medium so both parties are satisfied if not happy. Some struggles are not simple and putting human beings to death should not be taken lightly.

Some will avidly defend capital punishment by saying that these men and women who are being put to death are not human because a human being would have respect for the lives of others. This argument and others like it I see a weak because to quote Dr. Seuss, “A person's a person, no matter how small.” And I will infer that a person’s a person no matter their past. While reading death row inmate’s last words, some seemed angry and defiant, some clung to innocence and some appeared quite remorseful for their past actions. All of these actions or emotions I have seen displayed by students in my classes when we had all forgotten or had better things to do than the reading for that day. I’m not saying I think slacking on homework and killing someone is the same thing, but these murderers display very human emotions and reactions to different situations. They are still human beings and no one can convince me otherwise.

What of the other arguments like: give those who have suffered injury justice, an eye for an eye and capital punishment is a deterrent for other would-be killers. Two of these arguments I see as fallacies. While giving justice to the injured parties is one of the few arguments that I struggle with logically responding to and still maintaining my position, because if you haven’t figured it out, I am against killing human beings in all forms. My struggle is this; how could I look a father in the eyes and tell him that the man who raped, killed and again raped his ten year old daughter that, “We got him! He is locked up for the rest of his life! Hooray!” No, that father, mother, sister, brother, grandparent, friend, next-door neighbor, anyone who had a relationship with the little girl wants the guilty party’s blood. There are exceptions to this example but what of the ones who do want the guilty party to die? How can society deny them that?

The Apr 27th 2007 edition of The Economist contained an article entitled Here is thy sting here is an excerpt, “Hours after being sentenced to death by a sharia court in Somalia last May, Omar Hussein was publicly executed. He was hooded, tied to a stake and stabbed to death by the 16-year-old son of the man he had admitted stabbing to death three months earlier.” While looking for more on this story, the internet yielded that the boy stabbed Omar Hussein in the chest, neck and head multiple times until Omar Hussein’s death resulted. The 16 year old boy is quoted as saying “I am happy now because I killed the man who killed my father." Sen. Greg L. Adams of the 24th District of Nebraska once asked me this rhetorical question, “Do we kill to deter or because they have violated the most precious thing, life?”

While this churns my stomach, I can’t help but put myself in the shoes of a family member who has lost a loved one to a murderer, while I hope that I would be capable of cutting the ropes from the guilty party’s wrists and say, “I forgive you, go and sin no more,” I don’t know if I could. But I know I can’t judge those in this situation because I can’t imagine their pain no matter how hard I try.

The other two dominant arguments, an eye for an eye and capital punishment is a deterrent for other would-be killers, seem to me to be logical fallacies. People who quote the Bible and say an eye for an eye are ignoring and in direct conflict with scripture, Matthew 5:38-39 “You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” This can be argued, but to me as an individual, to my understanding the intent of Christ’s words here is that an eye for an eye is not the rule for his followers, but mercy and love for all.

Now, to capital punishment as a deterrent for other would be-killers. I have difficulty believing that killing is the best way to stop killing. It may be effective, but is it the best way? I do understand that if I were to premeditate a murder, I would take the consequences into consideration, but I do not think of death penalty as any less desirable than life in prison. Neither one is something I would want. So, why is life in prison and having all of your rights taken away not enough? I believe it is.

The worst pro capital punishment argument I have ever heard is this: “Why should we let them live in prison and make the taxpayer support them when we could just kill them?” I attribute this quote to another student in class but will not give the name out of respect because I am about to be quite impolite. For even taking this position you are no better than a murder in my mind! I checked several prison websites and found that the cost of keeping an inmate in prison for one day is between $2.50 and $40.00 depending on the creativity of the warden. When did a human life become less valuable than $40.00?
Capital punishment is becoming less and less prevalent as time passes and there seems to be a trend of world nations abolishing it. America, however, is still holding on to it and some Americans are even holding on to it with pride. Some states have stopped using the death penalty and I, for one, hope the death penalty will be abolished sometime in the near future. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but I do know time’s are changing.

As I said earlier, evil is in the eye if the beholder and I must appeal to the higher power, I am a Bible Major after all. I say that the only eyes and beholder who should be able to set the standards for mankind is God and he did with his son Jesus and the standard is love.