States misguided in turn to capital punishment

By Alex DeMille

In California, 508 men and nine women are on death row awaiting their fate. A state once known for its liberal stance on capital punishment is now run by politicians, both Republican and Democrat, who are scrambling to respond to public cries for what they believe to be sterner and swifter justice. According to in article in the New York Times on Sat., Oct. 17, "California Prepares for Faster Execution Pace," both candidates for governor this year, Democrat Gray Davis and Republican Dan Lungren, are such fervent proponents of the death penalty that they debate over who supports it more. The politicians of the Golden State are fueling the public's support for state-sanctioned murder, forgetting the true meaning of justice.

Why do Californians, or rather, Americans in general, support the death penalty? What exactly do they believe it accomplishes? Is it a means of deterrence or a form of vengeance? Is this a practical matter or an emotional one?

Let us first look at how capital punishment might influence someone with a murderous mentality. In general, a person who would commit a crime like first-degree murder is probably not rational in the first place, and is probably not the type who would consider the consequences of his actions. A well-adjusted sense of right and wrong--not the fear of legal punishment--is what most often deters people from committing violent crimes.

Those who think execution will send a message to the criminal world are mistaken; the time between the actual crime and the execution is so great that the supposed message loses its meaning. The connection between crime and punishment has faded. According to California Senator Bill Lockyer (in the aforementioned New York Times article) the median time between conviction and execution is about 14 years in California. Fourteen years is plenty of time to forget.

The crime may still be fresh in the minds of the victim's family, but the public eye has long ago lost interest. That gruesome murder that they read about in the paper all those years ago is now a distant memory and the news of an execution years later may rouse a futile cry for justice, or feed the public's fascination with the morose, but where is the message? Does it enlighten the criminal's family? Does it alleviate the sorrow of thevictim's family? Perhaps the only one who fully comprehends the message is the person on the receiving end of the lethal injection. Although after so many years of wasting away on death row, it is doubtful that his sins are fresh in his mind.

What of the public thirst for vengeance? The "eye for an eye" mentality has always been central to the argument for capital punishment. In this rationale, human life is quantifiable. Human life, though, is the most sacred thing we can comprehend; its value cannot be weighed or measured. So the question is: does the government which has the power to tax, the power to wage war against another nation, and the power to imprison someone for life, also have the authority to kill someone as a method of exacting justice?

The answer is no.

There are some areas over which the government has no jurisdiction. The question of whether or not to have capital punishment is not only a moral and philosophical question, but also a political one. How far is the government allowed to go? Imprisonment robs people of their liberty, but it serves the cause of protecting the larger public from them.

Execution serves no higher purpose. It does not discourage crime, nor fill the emptiness in the heart of everyone who has seen a loved one murdered. Capital punishment increases the strife of the criminal's family and exposes the government's inability to overcome the human fault of seeking vengeance rather than serving justice.

The recent trend in California sets a very dangerous precedent for the rest of the country. As the media continue to broadcast images of everyday atrocities, the public's anger and fear increases, strengthening political support for capital punishment. Politicians play on the public's paranoia, creating the warm and fuzzy illusion that they will be safe now that those bad people in jail are dying.

The reality is that one cannot stop murder with more murder, nor use anger and a thirst for vengeance as means of achieving justice. The world is not a safe place, but California and the rest of the nation must realize that the death penalty will not make it any safer.

Alex DeMille is a freshman in Timothy Dwight.

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