CHAPTER 2
Argument 13 (17)
The Death Penalty means retribution which belongs to a civilized state
Within the judicial system the word retribution is nowadays a rare bird, and if the bird happens to sing there its unwelcome song it is immediately forced to leave. But among the vast crowd retribution will always be an important ingredient in the issues concerning crime and punishment, because the sense of retribution as a justifying act has always been part of man’s nature. In the heart of us humans there is usually something demanding retribution for those who commit brutal and ruthless crimes. This is something deep within man, yes it is something that unit the human race.
It is important to understand that every country has more or less of a retribution practice. It is not always pronounced by the state governed by law, but yet real and manifest for all. As soon as any kind of a stiff punishment is sentenced it is a sort of retribution. Prison or fines can sometimes be seen as common forms of retribution.(1)
Retribution is of course not the same thing as the blind revenge of fury, and it is not the question of the individual citizen capricious acts of revenge. Human relationships, no matter how damaged and strained they are, may never lead to acts of revenge.
The words "revenge" and "retribution" are practically synonymous. But since "revenge" often is associated with the individual or the gang who mostly settles issues on their own, the word is not fitting for the issue we are discussing here. The most fitting word here is "retribution" which also has a more legal nuance to it and more often refers to the legal practice of the state governed by law. Retribution is simply the civilized State’s natural reaction when it, by a democratic legal process, punishes a criminal and allows pain to be punished by pain.
Retribution is needed because it is an immediate and obvious consequence of justice. Without justice there is no need for retribution. Justice on the other hand demands retribution if the term justice is to have any kind of meaning. But if justice is something foreign then retribution also becomes something foreign since retribution is a fruit from the tree of justice.
For the extremists who can not imagine any acts of retribution at all we say: ask people. And ask especially the victims of crime;
Ask women who have been brutally raped what punishment they want the rapist to have.
Ask old people who have been attacked and robbed what punishment they want the criminal to have.
Ask children and teenagers who have been the victims of violent sexual assaults what punishment they want the violent criminals to have.
Ask all those who have been beaten by unknown perpetrators and have been scarred for life what punishment they want the criminals to have.
The answers will, with few exceptions, be some sort of retribution. That is what we humans have always felt. If the perpetrator isn’t insane and thereby unable to be held responsible for his actions, we want to see retribution made, pain punished by pain. That is sound, normal and civilized.
The US Supreme Court wrote in verdict Gregg v. Georgia: "The instinct for retribution is part of the nature of man".
Severe retribution is also one way to somewhat hold back the lawlessness, because fear of committing crimes follows severe retribution and this will deter some from committing criminal acts.
If the state governed by law does not use retribution there is always the risk that citizens takes the law in their own hands more and more. People’s frustration would force some to act against the law of society and act according to the jungle’s capricious laws of revenge. Such a society, where retribution raves as a loose and wild fire no one wants to find, and therefore retribution needs to be intertwined in the laws of punishment and function as a method of control aimed to prevent human impulses of revenge to run amok. A penal code neither can nor should remove our righteous feelings for retribution but it should be the collecting point for such feelings. Only the state governed by law has the right and the obligation, by democratic and established forms, to impose the death penalty as a retribution.
A nation who walk around with frustration, wrath and bitterness from rarely seeing the State performing its duty to retribute according to righteous proportions, is not a harmonious nation. But a state governed by law that does this and thereby confirms the feelings of the nation creates favorable effects in society.
It is obvious that the climate in society can not be good when the people constantly see and hear how easily violent criminals get away and who constantly experience how their feelings of revenge and retribution never are satisfied, but constantly activated and simmering.
It is when the state governed by law punishes the brutal perpetrators with what the people consider the fair punishment that the feelings of revenge and retribution can be replaced with a peaceful and contented sense. This would naturally create a less brutal climate in society.
Revenge and retribution is integrated in the depth of the human soul. But it is not meant to be constantly active, violently flamed and never satisfied. It then becomes dangerous. When revenge and retribution flames up in the human soul it is in itself a good and healthy sign. It shows that the soul is healthy. But it is not sound if the fire of revenge burns too long in the human soul. Such a fire will finally consume everything that comes in its path. The flames of retribution, which are righteous in themselves, are meant to quickly be born, be satisfied and then go back into rest in the depth of the soul.
How is the state governed by law supposed to do this in a concrete way? The important thing is that the State sees, confirms and satisfies these normal emotions. Everything else will only lead to more frustration and wrath among the people. The call for retribution must be answered in a concrete way and not quietly be passed by.
When it comes to the most brutal crimes the death penalty is what most powerfully can satisfy the righteous feelings of revenge and retribution that the majority of the people carry. And a comforted and peaceful people who have been released from frustrations and wrath is a more harmonious people. It creates a society that feels better.
Abolitionists usually speak ill about revenge and retribution for some strange reason. But a society will not be relieved from wild and flaring feelings of revenge and retribution by not caring about them or by despising them. The society will be relieved from them by meeting with their righteous demands and satisfying their hunger. If this does not happen, they will always lurk closely under the surface with a lid on top that constantly shakes and testifies that there is something boiling inside. Only the state governed by law can create harmony in the human soul and the body of society by using just punishments.
The solution for having a society free of unruly feelings of revenge and retribution is therefore just punishments. It is only by the taste of justice that the flaming fire of revenge can be quenched. Revenge, or more appropriate - retribution, means therefore nothing else than that the perpetrator is judged to a stiff punishment in due proportion to the crime.
Retribution by the death penalty for the most heinous crimes is and remains therefore a mark that signifies the civilized State which is founded on justice. Stiff punishments in due proportion to the crime, by the State, makes up an obvious answer to man’s natural and inherited feelings of revenge and retribution.
Footnote 1. It is worth noticing how many countries, when attacked by outside forces or by acts of terrorism, can sometimes use the word retribution, open and officially, as a justifying explanation for their fight against such things. Both on an individual and a national level retribution has, as an obvious and natural principal, followed humanity everywhere. It is an important impulse, it can sometimes even have to do with our survival. It is the task of the State, not of the individual, to give expression for this general feeling. Back.
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© David Anderson 1998, 2002
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