CHAPTER 2

Argument 16 (17)

A wide opinion among the people supporting the Death Penalty is also a reason for its introduction

It is difficult to know how wide the opinion among the people of Europe is today for the capital punishment. The one-way propaganda that has gone out to the countries for decades is that the death penalty is something terrible and evil. From the Establishment there has been the eleventh commandment issued saying; "Thou shalt not use the death penalty!" Obviously this ongoing sermon has made its mark and influenced many. But the commandment must be exposed as what it is, not a divine commandment but – seen from a historical perspective – a new human idea, and a frail one as such.

And if a constructive debate is allowed to sweep over Europe and unbiased information reaches the peoples, and if all the arguments are allowed to be ventilated freely in an objective and open way, then it is reasonable to think that a great and strong opinion among the people for the capital punishment is going to be established.

The laws of a country are to mirror the will of the people. If this is not the case something similar a dictatorship will begin to form, i.e. the laws are decided and formed by a minority without the anchorage among the people.(1)

Today we can easily find the will of the people by polls and votes. But considering the one-way propaganda that today is carried out by governments and media all over Europe no polls can be correct or trustworthy even if it is shocking to see that polls often show a strong support for the capital punishment. 

And since it is so, that a great number of the people in the European countrys support the capital punishment but they have no larger party or organization or even a larger daily paper that supports them, it has to be seen as a great failure for democracy.

That there yet are no official arena which support the death penalty despite that so many people in Europe does, is a psychological phenomen which is hard to understand. But a reasonable answer could be that many whitin the official establishment is positive to the death penalty but that there are an unwritten taboo to make it known. It should be positive if that taboo was broken. Then the foundation of the present distorted conception of justice could rather quickly come to loosen up.

The death penalty is a serious question concerning life or death for people. It is therefore reasonable to assert that the people - after an impartial and unbiased information and when both sides have got as much space in media - should be allowed to state their opinion by a consultative popular vote, concerning the being or non-being of the capital punishment. This would be healthy for democracy and for the modern state governed by law.(2)

"While European advocacy groups, political officials and the media are touting the [Timothy] McVeigh execution as an argument against the U.S. death penalty, there are no signs of a mass mobilization of public opinion. One reason is the lack of sympathy McVeigh engenders. Beyond that, though, European public opinion is in fact divided on the death penalty. In Britain, where the last legal vestiges of capital punishment were removed only in 1998, support for the penalty remains around 60%. A 1996 Dutch poll showed 52% in favor. In Italy and France, support runs over 40%." TIME, maj 21, 2001.

Also these European numbers are surprisingly high. And what would the numbers be if media there would refrain from partial and regular condemning of the capital punishment?

Footnote 1. Often the death penalty has been abolished in countries against a strong opinion among the people against the abolishment. In e.g. Great Britain 85% of the people were supporting the death penalty even the years after it was abolished for murder in 1965. They had a vote in 1990 among the members of parliament whether the death penalty should be reinstated for murder; 289 voted against, 257 voted pro. (Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is supporting the death penalty.) Three out of five Englishmen where supporting the death penalty for murder according to a survey made in 1995. In South Africa 80% of the white and 49% of the black wanted to reinstate the death penalty after it had been abolished (in time of peace) in 1995. In Canada (2001) 52% of the population want to reintroduce the death penalty, 46% opposed it. A survey made in Lithuania in the middle of the 1990’s showed that 90% wanted to keep the death penalty. In Latvia approximately 70% wanted to keep the death penalty. Back.