CHAPTER 2
Argument 11 (17)
The Death Penalty shows in the strongest way the seriousness with which the State views violent crimes and murder
When today a violent criminal or a murderer is sentenced to a prison for some years, aimed for rehabilitation, there is a clear signal sent out into the society: violent crimes and murder is not very serious, the sanction is usually mild.
Through the death penalty there is a signal which is just as clear, but with the opposite message: violent criminals and murderers have committed the most serious crime a human being can commit, the punishment will be the hardest possible – the loss of life.
The death penalty in other words draw the curtain aside and reveal for us with unique power the felonys horrible gravity.
How serious the State views the cruelest crimes is fairly easy for me as a citizen to find out. The answer is found in the code of laws. There I find what punishment he gets who tomorrow may violate me or take my life. Every citizen should ask himself if today’s sanction for a violent criminal or murderer really shows a serious attitude from the state governed by law.
We as individual citizens of a society should also show our seriousness concerning these questions. The greater our empathy for our fellowman, the victim of a crime, the greater our disgust over the crime of the perpetrator. Compassion and anger joins when we stand at the scene of a crime. The seriousness of the moment is then very close at hand.
The seriousness is also closely related to human value and dignity. The greater the value that we give the human being, the greater is our seriousness when we are confronted with the violent criminal or the murderer. If we ordinary humans are not worth very much there is no greater reason to impose a harsh punishment for those who injure and kills. The death penalty on the other hand testifies of the greatest seriousness when heinous crimes have been committed, and thereby confirms man’s inviolable human value in a remarkable way.
When it comes to heinous crimes and murders there is no penalty other than the death penalty that more clearly, more powerfully and more concrete shows the seriousness with which we citizens and the State views these crimes. If we want the state governed by law to send out this incredibly powerful signal the capital punishment has to be introduced.
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© David Anderson 1998, 2002
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