CHAPTER 2
Argument 12 (17)
The Death Penalty, more than anything else, testifies of high moral and righteousness in the society
Through the death penalty the moral question of right and wrong is put to the test. Can there be, for instance, something so "morally wrong" in life that it deserves death?
Every penalty sends a moral message to the members of society. Today when violent criminals and murderers are sentenced to some years in prison it feels like a mild breeze that whispers to the criminal: "It probably wasn’t a good thing that you did."
It should be compared to the death penalty, which, like a strong thunderstorm, declares to the criminal his evil and immoral act. The capital punishment thereby makes up the strongest moral declaration a society can make to show what crimes are horrible. At the same time the death penalty, more than any other punishment, declares that the criminal is a moral person with responsibilities.
A condemnation of bad and evil morals is not worth anything if there isn’t a distinct penalty for one who commits the most heinous immoral acts. If the word "moral" is to have a value in the society, he who commits the most immoral acts must be punished in the hardest way. Otherwise moral ends with just being a good attitude and value worth speaking well off, but not much more.
The state governed by law shows how low or how high it values morals by the punishments it imposes on those who commits the most immoral crimes. It is only by a concrete act that the State can show how seriously it looks on violence and murder from a moral point of view.
The evil in a crime such as murder can not be more exposed as evil than through the death penalty.
Only condemning words or mild sanctions means nothing to the victims of crimes or to all of us citizens who wants a higher moral standard in the society. Words must lead to action if they are to have any value to the citizens. And then there is no other act, no other sanction, which can be compared to the capital punishment if we wish for a high moral to be the guiding star for the State also in reality.
Someone may ask: Is it not immoral for the State to take a human life?
-Yes, if the one who is executed is innocent and the State knows it.
But it can never be immoral for justice to be administered. On the contrary, it is good moral, and it shows the deepest respect for human value – first for the victims but also for us ordinary citizens.
The capital punishment also wakes up the righteous society. Righteousness includes morals but also justice and honesty. The opposite of righteousness is not only unrighteousness but also a society that is exaggeratedly tolerant with those who commit horrid acts towards their fellowmen. Where there is no righteousness there is only a distorted kindness towards everyone, a pampering and coddling even for the cruelest ones.
The death penalty would, with great force, blow apart this falsehood. It would deliver us to be true people who do not have to believe the criminal philosophy of today that wants to force us to feel sympathy for the violent criminal, and to be nice and humane to the murderer. The death penalty would give us the righteous society back, where we can feel indignant, where we can seek justice, where we can demand a reasonable retribution against the violent criminal.
A society that wishes to strive for the highest morality and righteousness must react in the strongest way towards those who, by their actions, have shown the lowest immorality and unrighteousness. The capital punishment, more than any other punishment, would place morality and righteousness in the spotlight.
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© David Anderson 1998, 2002
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