NCJ Number
99842
Journal
Legal Reference Services Quarterly Volume: 4 Dated: (Fall 1984) Pages: 89-95
Date Published
1984
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article, written in 1898, argues for the abolition of the death penalty based on its cruelty, finality, excessiveness, vengefulness, and ineffectiveness in deterring crime.
Abstract
The state has no right to injure or kill a citizen as a matter of policy for any reason. The state's responsibility is to humanely restrain citizens from harming other citizens and take measures to reform such injurious behavior. Capital punishment is not required to accomplish these purposes. Its use as premeditated vengeance would be murder if perpetrated by one citizen against another, and it is no less a crime if committed by the state against a citizen. Moreover, capital punishment prevents the correction of errors in justice discovered after the trial. The argument that capital punishment deters those crimes to which it is applied does not erase its criminal character. Moreover, capital punishment sets an example of violence that apparently inflames aggression. The wholesale application of capital punishment also fails to consider the diverse mental and moral constitutions underlying human behavior. People are not equally free to choose or turn from crime, as many are predisposed toward criminal behavior by influences over which they have no control. The criminal code should take into account such mitigating circumstances.