CHAPTER 2
Argument 4 (17)
Only the Death Penalty can fully confirms man’s natural sense of justice
The first argument of this chapter can be said to defend justice seen from an objective point of view. This argument defends justice from a subjective point of view and it is about the sense of justice.
This sense of justice can be shown to be an incredible strong power within us. When we see the ruthless ravaging of the violent criminal and the murderer, strong feelings can be woken in us. This can be a mixture of wrath and grief and despair. Often the death penalty enters as the natural answer to the sense of justice that then rises in us. This reaction is not completely explainable or understandable using rational arguments. It is a feeling that overpowers many of us. We can not read about it or listen to it by using academic reasoning. Maybe we can feel a vibration of this core of justice within us when we see news programs that realistically and closely show these beastly crimes of violence and murder in picture and words. The sense of justice that is then woken to life must be confirmed and have it’s acknowledgment and outlet in the judicial system of society.
It may be easy for some to be abolitionists when all is well, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the children are playing. Those days the sense of justice sleeps. But when evil suddenly shows itself, in the midst of all the beautiful and nice, when the murderer stands there with his bloody knife and we see what he has done - then the holy sense of justice is woken to life and begin to rush through our blood and instinctively we easily feel that the perpetrator does not deserve to live.
The abolitionist now only reacts impulsively and says what he has been taught that this is primitive and middle-aged feelings of revenge that are unacceptable.
Such a reaction from the abolitionist can have many reasons. It may be because one has suffocated and denied the sense of justice on the inside. In countries where media is strongly against the capital punishment this is often the case. It can also be because one has it not easy to feel empathy with the afflicted one. It may be difficult to see oneself in a horrible situation that has affected other people. And maybe mentally one is far away from the violent center of events. Whatever the cause, the cold arrogant winds blow across society when the enemies of the death penalty speak degrading and spiteful about the sense of justice that most of us feel.
None of us have the ability to totally feel with afflicted fellow humans as we should. It is only when we ourselves experience the pain that it means when close relatives or friends are afflicted that compassion wakes up in the soul. But the more understanding and empathy that is among us, the more we understand how important it is to also show consideration to peoples experience and emotions.
Man is not by nature carriers of uncivilized feelings. On the contrary we have a natural sense of justice, a sense that is placed in the heart and that says that one who takes a human life deserves to loose his own life. To whatever country we go, through the course of every decade, we will find the same sense of justice. And it is not unusual that the murderers themselves are of the opinion that they have forfeited their own lives.
Sometimes we need to draw out the slumbering spirits of justice within ourselves. We need to feel the breeze when the murderer sweeps by us and see the trail of blood that follows him and feel the chill go down the spine when we see the victim’s death struggle and hear his scream in fear of death. Actually it is in the middle of a situation like that which every discussion about the death penalty should be held. Then the natural reaction in most of us would be that life has to be made up by another life. If this does not happen our whole being should protest and call out in powerlessness in the feeling of injustice. It is the respect for human life and our inner sense of justice that pulsates in our veins that then would react in a healthy way. If we deny these real feelings we at the same time deny part of ourselves, something of our humanity.
This sense of justice that burns within us like a fire is not an isolated feeling, but would also be supported by rational thinking. Reason and sensibility walks hand in hand in its standpoint to the death penalty.
The words "sense of justice" are important. They include the word sense and justice. It means having feelings for what is right. The ultimate justice can only be reached if the violent criminal and the murderer are sentenced to death. And a healthy and sound sense will confirm that justice.
Some abolitionists, with a more academic disposition, can distinctly but incorrect assert that it shall be taken no consideration to the feelings in a trial or in a sentence. But that is as unwise as if somebody should assert that in a courtroom there can be taken no consideration to cold reason. Man consist of both feelings and reason, and if the existens of any part is denied within something so important as a courtroom and a criminal case then at the same time man is denied. Therefore it must, already with the making of laws, especially concerning crime of violence, gives evident and respectful imprints also for the feelings of man. Man is feelings and man is reason. And that is, for instance, why we never can be satisfied with a sentence as long it is not meet with approval both by feelings and reason. Unfortunately, the Swedish penal code takes no regard to man’s feelings and it can therefore hardly be called human.
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© David Anderson 1998, 2002
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