On death penalty

While browsing the Internet this morning, I came across a quote from Britney Spears (I know, I know...) reported in a French newspaper: "I am for the death penalty. Who commits terrible acts must get a fitting punishment. That way he learns the lesson for the next time." I don't know if she exactly said it that way -I hope, for her sake, that her words were altered - but what made me smile at first, quickly reminded me of the immorality of death penalty and the urgency to abolish it.

"Death penalty is the special and eternal sign of barbarism. Where death penalty is applied, barbarism dominates; where death penalty is rare, civilization reigns." Victor Hugo pronounced those words as early as 1848. And yet, 160 years later, thousands of people around the world are on death row. Abolitionism started a very long time ago. For a brief period of time during the 8th century, China banned the capital punishment. But in spite of some oppositions here and there, every society relied on the death penalty to deal with criminals, with some difference in the methods.

In modern times, the abolitionist movement started in Europe with the publishing of Cesare Beccaria's book: Dei Delitti e Delle Pene (On Crimes and Punishments) in 1764. This book influenced Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg who was the first head of State to abolish death penalty in his duchy (Grand Duchy of Tuscany) in 1770. Following, more and more countries and states abolished the capital punishment. Today, every country in Europe has abolished it and the abolition of death penalty is a requirement to enter the European Union.

In the United States, Michigan was the first State to abolish the death penalty in 1847 and since then, it has never been reinstated. Today, 13 American States and the District of Columbia have banned the capital punishment including Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

I believe that death penalty is wrong and should be abolished everywhere.

First of all, I believe that a society cannot achieve greatness by deliberately killing some of its constituents. As soon as they started settling down into societies, men came to the conclusion that killing is wrong and should be prohibited. One of the first human right proclaimed was the right to live. We usually feel appalled when we take a look at History and hear about the torture and cruelties that our ancestors inflicted on their outlaws. Today, arbitrary trials have been replaced by courts and cruel punishments by so called humane ways of dying. But nevertheless, we are still killing. We are still committing the worst act on earth. And we are doing it in the name of the law. The Law is supposed to help us live together. By killing in the name of the law, we are sullying society itself. I agree with Robert Kennedy when he said: "Whenever any American life is taken by another unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in defiance of the law ... in an attack of violence or in response to violence - the whole nation is degraded."

How do you draw a line between what is right and what is wrong if you allow a supreme wrong in the name of justice? Two wrongs do not make a right. Killing a person who has killed will not bring the victim back, it will not remove the sorrow from the victim's family, it will only add misery to the world. If you have concluded that killing was wrong, don't do it in the name of justice.

If anything, a society condemning a criminal to death is a sign of its own failure. Death is an easy way out, death means erasing the individual, pretending that he never belonged to society. Josef Stalin is reported to have said: "Death solves all problems - no man, no problem." Instead of trying to work on an issue and solve it so as to make the world a better place, the death penalty tries to forget everything and move on. Now, you can't move on if you don't try to face the issues. Giving the death penalty to someone is also a way of saying that society does not think that it is able to rehabilitate the individual. It is like confessing failure in advance.

Revenge is a natural feeling after horrible things has been committed. However, justice should be kept as far away from revenge as possible. Justice has to be fair and restorative. While revenge is only about punishing the criminal, justice is based on morality and has a responsibility to "bring society back to normal after a wrong has been perpetrated". Most of the time, revenge only aggravates the situation by generating more crimes and more sorrow. Like Gandhi said: «An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.»

I believe that death penalty belongs to a Manichean and dualistic school of thought where there is evil on one side, good on the other and nothing in the middle. I totally disagree with this way of thinking. I don't believe that there is a good and an evil on Earth . I think that there is a lot of gray. I believe that there is an absolute good somewhere but I doubt that it is reachable by humans. Because humans have feelings and emotions, I don't believe that they can attain perfection in which resides good. But because humans can think, I believe that they can and that they should always try to tend to it. Most people refer to the necessity of keeping death penalty for the most horrible crimes, perpetrated by evil individuals. I believe that those cases are immensely rare and that most of the crimes - even the most horrible ones - are committed by normal people, not monsters. I believe that society cannot put those individuals aside by stating that they are different from the rest of us. We, as a society, have to look into our own responsibilities.

On a side note, throughout the years, people have used the term "evil" to refer to enemies so that no one can question their acts against the so-called evil beings. Indeed, when you are fighting evil, anything is allowed. "Fighting evil" is a very easy and a very dangerous rhetoric. It has led humanity into numerous wars. Referring to evil has the advantage of uniting people behind you easily (in the name of good) and having no accountability for the wrongs you can do while fighting evil. But I am going a little further than my initial purpose there which was dealing with the death penalty.

Death penalty carries a culture of violence that tarnishes society. When the law is violent in its methods, it rubs on the individuals. When the killing of people is allowed and is used as a way to regulate society - even if it is properly supervised - people tend to internalize this violence and get more violent themselves.

It has been proved by numerous studies that death penalty is not deterrent. People do not think of the possibility of their own death when they commit a crime. If anything, because of the culture of violence it generates, death penalty may enhance criminality.

The countries executing the most people around the world are: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the USA and Iraq. Do you notice anything weird? Yes, me too. The USA are the only democracy still killing in the name of justice. As the "leader of the free world", it seems important to me that the USA show the example in terms of human rights.

Throughout the years, how many innocents have been killed? How many people have been killed because they were too poor to afford a competent lawyer? Our justice system is not perfect. With money, you can afford a good lawyer and escape death penalty. With no money and no education, being able to defend yourself properly can be a hardship. How many people have been given the death penalty because of their skin color? Even in the fairest justice system, you can never totally eliminate bias. Men are fallible and for this reason, you cannot put the supreme decision of life and death into the hands of men.

Around the world, how many people are killed because they hold different opinions than the mainstream? How many people are killed because they are homosexual or because they had sexual intercourse before out of wedlock? Of course, those cases shock us all because fortunately, in the western world, our laws have evolved. But who is able to tell what tomorrow will be made of? As man advances towards a more and more civilized world, who can tell what our children and grandchildren will think of our world? What will they smile at, what will shock them? To know it, let's look at our History and at what we consider today as the greatest achievements of humanity: the declaration of human rights, the right to vote, the abolition of slavery, the abolition of torture, the abolition of segregation... All those great achievements were going towards more human rights. The next step? Abolish the death penalty everywhere. It is that simple.

«There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.» Montesquieu