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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

Philosophical discussion of the death-penalty. History of state-sanctioned death penalty for certain crimes. Ethical, religious and philosophical thought regarding capital punishment. Views for and against. Civil and moral legislation. State theory of various Western philosophers. Controversy surrounding the death penalty in the U.S. Racism. Whether capital punishment acts as a deterrent against crime.

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This research examines the subject of capital punishment from a philosophical perspective. The research will set forth the historical context in which death-penalty philosophy emerged as a significant issue of social and civic discourse and then discuss prevailing philosophical and religious views of capital punishment, both for and against, with particular emphasis on philosophical views. Whether capital punishment acts a deterrent for the commission of crimes in general will also be discussed.
Introduction
The practice of capital punishment, or a state-sanctioned death penalty for certain crimes, appears to be as ancient as history. The Code of Hammurabi, discovered only in AD 1902 but estimated to have been promulgated between 2100 and 1700 BC, was the first systematic attempt to foster disinterested, impartial state

Introduction. Punishment, he says, is not theopposite of reward. Some 68% of capital judgmentswere judged to have been "seriously flawed." The death-penalty "system,"they conclude, is "broken." The possibility of error leads Bedau (296) toconclude as a matter of logic that where capital punishment is availablesociety incurs "both the risk of executing the innocent and the risk ofrecidivist murder, even though it is necessary to run only one of theserisks." The findings of the Liebman study were, however, challenged by Latzerand Cauthen on the basis of a research method flawed by the collapsing ofdeath-penalty-mitigated sentences and proof of innocence into a singlecategory. The Emperor of China, who is a man of verygood sense, said, that for his part, he should have condemned them to walkbareheaded, in every pubic procession, for three months afterwards. Ed. The Discourses, which explains Renaissance statecraft with referenceto the ancient Roman state, states that Rome's very greatness lay in "thenature of the punishment inflicted on the evil-doer. Introduction, Utilitarianism. A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995. Crocker. Works CitedBailey, William C. 1764; New York: Macmillan, 1986.Bedau, Hugo Adam. James A. "The Thirst for Revenge." Commonweal 16 June 1995: 8-9.Clark, Ramsey. Once that interrogation is made, itbecomes possible to interrogate specific features of statecraft. Bedau also takes the view thatsociety's wish for reasons of moral outrage or indignation to punish wrongsto the innocent is not reason enough "to warrant the inference that [thecriminal] and his conduct are appropriate objects of our unqualifiedhostility" (Bedau 294). Surely not a moral one. McCafferty. Trans. By Mill. And in an adversarial system based on the notion that justice is the product of a clash between evenly matched advocates, second-rate representation can translate -- literally--into a death sentence (Lerner 46).High-profile exoneration of persons wrongfully convicted and placed ondeath row in recent years have had the effect of interrogating judicialpraxis in capital cases. Liebman, et al. But the issue isfar from settled in public discourse. Emotional or even moral attachment to the idea that a criminal oughtto get his or her just deserts does not rise to the level of rationalargument, let alone philosophical position, in the opinion of opponents ofcapital punishment. Trans. The general line of argument againstcapital punishment is that society's moral outrage is not reason enough "towarrant the inference that [the criminal] and his conduct are appropriateobjects of our unqualified hostility" (Bedau 294). He attributes,this time to Leibniz, the view that "punishment should be in proportion tothe crime" (Voltaire, Sage 332). . . Further to this point, Shapiro (22)cites a statement by a retiring Florida Supreme Court justice: "If oneinnocent person is executed along the way, then we can no longer justifycapital punishment." In a report published in mid-2 arguing that death as punishmentincreases the importance of a reliable conviction and sentence, Liebman, etal., describe their 23-year review of 5,76 capital sentences and 4,578appeals, concluding is that "serious error, error substantially underminingthe reliability of capital verdicts--has reached epidemic proportionsthroughout our death penalty system" (1). They do notsee and suffer the cell, the drill, the clothes, the stench, the food . C.B. Along the same lines, vanden Haag (288) cites Hegel and Kant to the effect that execution elevatesthe rational status of the criminal by obliging acceptance ofresponsibility, adding that life imprisonment also violates individualdignity. Credible defense of the death penalty cannot be mounted withoutacknowledging compelling arguments against it. . "The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense." Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, ed. The Outline of History, Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind. New York: Dover, 1971.van den Haag, Ernest. Whereas Hobbes takes regicide to be an anathema and absolutism thestandard of governance, his younger contemporary John Locke, writing in thecontext of the Glorious Revolution, which in 1688 deposed England's lastdivine-right monarch, James II, and brought along constitutional monarchy,takes a different view. Thus the contradiction betweenthe terse and definite words of the Decalogue and the elaborations on thetheme, as well as activities of the Israelites that follow suggests thatThou shalt not kill except under the conditions hereinafter set forth mighthave been more useful, if less poetic, wording. Yet Thou shalt not killlooms in the background of their activities. Deterrence theory appears to be consistent with utilitarian theoryinasmuch as capital punishment can be viewed as an instrument of achievingthe greater good for the greater number (society as a whole). Lester G. Contemporaries of Voltaire and Hume who campaigned against executionsin the late 18th century included Denis Diderot, Adam Smith and ThomasPaine. That is consistent with citation of theauthority of Biblical text--"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exod.22.18)--to justify witch persecutions, including executions ("Witchcraft,"Funk). . He, however, who did not hunt a man down, but caused his death by an act of God, may flee to a place which I will set apart for this purpose. 21:12-16).The whole ethical question of Thou shalt not kill is further complicated bythe unfolding Biblical narrative, for example the fact that the Israelitesbattle and kill their way across the desert area to make their way intoCanaan, beginning at Jericho and continuing afterward. In the discussion of whether a prince ought to prefer being loved orfeared (fear is on the whole better), Machiavelli counsels some prudence inthe exercise of the option, though in the hierarchy of needs he placesproperty and women ahead of very life: And if you should be obliged to inflict capital punishment upon any one, then be sure to do so only when there is a manifest cause and proper justification; and, above all things, abstain from taking people's property, for men will sooner forget the death of their fathers than the loss of their patrimony (Machiavelli, Prince 73). Inparticular, nonwhites convicted of raping whites were most likely to beexecuted. 289-97.Callahan, Sidney. . Trans. "Murder and Capital Punishment: Some Further Evidence." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 45 (July 1975): 671-88.Barzun, Jacques. C.B. Van den Haag (286) also argues that the core debate over capitalpunishment properly concerns those who are guilty, not the presence orabsence of judicial error. The Codeof Hammurabi, discovered only in AD 19 2 but estimated to have beenpromulgated between 21 and 17 BC, was the first systematic attempt tofoster disinterested, impartial state governance -- at least as the conceptwas understood in the Mesopotamian context, which fused autocracy,patriarchy, and theocracy (Wells 184; Hayes, et al. In man's naturalstate, war, he says, "the "notions of Right and Wrong, Justice andInjustice have there no place. In the transition out of the Dark Ages into the Renaissance, whichcoincided with the emergence of secular nation-states in the wake ofdeclining Church hegemony, the issue of how and under what circumstancesthe state might exercise its death-penalty option was of concern. Science and Human Behavior. His basic assumption isthat authority figures who exceed their civil-service mission and exertundue power automatically relinquishes his office (418-19). Surely nota civil one. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1979.Skinner, B.F. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat P, 1971.Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, 1975 ed., S.v. The stakes of capital-punishment policy are in the modern periodevaluated not only in moral but also in civil-society terms. However, Locke's view ofstate is germane to the present research because it interrogates viadiscourse (a change from the English Civil War) the notion of theequivalence of sovereign and state to which James II, in the wake of theRestoration, had desired to return. As Sherexplains, summing up Mill's view of Utilitarianism: "we should alwaysperform that act, of those available, which will bring the most happiness,or least unhappiness, to the greatest number of people"(Sher vii). "Capital Punishment."Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, 1975 ed., S.v. It is mankind's construction of moral philosophy,not divinely inspired retributionist necessity, that is responsible forcriminal justice. Now in the Treatise, Hume's overarching object is to argueagainst divine determinism and/or agency in human affairs. The Best Known Works of Voltaire. When punishment isdiscontinued, the behavior returns, and even strengthens in the face ofpunishment. In any case, there is evidence that some philosophical rethinkingof capital punishment is under way in the U.S. Bernard Crick. "Capital Appeals Revisted." Judicature 84 (September/October 2 ): 64-71.Liebman, James S., Jeffrey Fagan, and Valerie West. Deterrence theory suggests that if punishment is to act as an effective deterrent to crime it must be: 1) severe enough to outweigh the potential pleasures crime might bring, 2) administered with certainty, 3) administered promptly, 4) administered publicly, and 5) applied with the proper judicial attitude. Ancient attachment to capital punishment in Mesopotamia has persistedas a feature of civil society throughout the historical period. Yes, says Hobbes, government, and morethan that, absolute government, administered by an absolute monarch "who"may use the strength and means of [citizens] all, as he shall thinkexpedient, for their peace and common defence" (521). . Leviathan. Locke's conception of statecraft in no way prevented the notoriouswitchcraft trials and executions in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, and inEngland during the 17 s, "16 offenses were punishable by death, mostlyoffenses against property" ("Capital Punishment"). Midway through the Decalogue in Exodus, the declarationis straightforward: Thou shalt not kill. Walker. In the modern period, apparent contradictions between the injunctionsagainst killing and the acquiescence in state-sponsored punishment thattakes the form as killing has informed debate with largely irreconcilablepositions. Coercion and authority presumptively reinforcehe will of the ruler, and the death penalty is one among many features ofit. Ambiguity arises as Exodusqualifies the basic statement, for example in the matter of personalinjury: Whoever strikes a man a mortal blow must be put to death. . Thus military officers may not hire mercenary soldiers to fightin their place (Edwards 33), and the penalty for a commander who attemptsto do so is death. Supreme Court's decision in 1972 to declare thedeath penalty unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment, under theEighth and Fourteenth Amendments state laws for sentencing capitaldefendants (Furman v. Wells. Imprisonment, he adds, carries a hope, however faint,for repentance and rehabilitation. Men are required to serve inthe armed forces (Edwards 32), and disloyal refusal inheres in death anddeprivation of property. But by killing the tenth part, chosen by lot, when all are guilty, he who is punished bewails his lot, and he who is not punished is afraid to do wrong lest on some other occasion the lot should not spare him (Machiavelli, Discourses 326). Macpherson. Macpherson. New York: Washington Square P, 1966.Sher, George. Barzun favors the death penaltyover imprisonment, considering the latter a crueler punishment than theformer. .the mass degradation, the impotent hatred" (Barzun 91). This was the period in whichChurch authority straddled religious, military, and secular jurisdictionsand exercised power over life and death. Bedau asserts that the deterrence rationale for capital punishment hasnever been proven and cannot be justified in a civil society (Bedau 294).He sees a contradiction in the fact that societal hostility is intended asa deterrent (in any case ineffective) for future behavior by others, evenas society shrinks from public executions that, as Bedau believes, are moreproperly and logically seen as deterrents. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1971. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin/Pelican, 197 .---. by the 196 s, capital-punishment was mainly levied forcrimes against persons or the state, although the range of offenses held tomerit capital punishment might vary from state to state. Advocates ofthe death penalty focus on the immorality of the crime, while opponentstend to focus on society's immorality when it returns death for murder.Emphasizing the dehumanizing--to society--element of capital punishment,Ramsey Clark (332) quotes Shaw: "Murder and capital punishment are notopposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind."Thus what sort of society is it that counts itself civil if it breed thedeath penalty? When Locke asks in the final paragraphs of theSecond Treatise of Government who will judge whether a government isdischarging the duties of its office, he insists that the authority to givethe answer, and to resist any ruler who exceeds his lawful bounds, lies notmerely with the inferior magistrates and other representatives of thepeople but also with the citizens or "the body of the people" (444-5).Tyranny destroys the state, just as rebellion does. As Lerner explains, aside from execution itself: no issue vexes critics of capital punishment more than the specter of inadequate representation. . Capital punishment ipso facto eliminatesrehabilitation, interrupting the cycle of opportunity for guidance andreintegration, interrupting, indeed, the process by which the validity ofsocial goods may be tested against those who have violated them. In Malleus, much attention is given to why perfidious witchcraft islargely female, "found more in so fragile a sex than in men." Women, it isdeclared, "are found to be given to superstition and witchcraft." Inparticular, midwives "surpass all others in wickedness" (Malleus 41).Malleus presents a (spurious) etymological proof for the connection betweenwomen and witchery, which is that the Latin for woman, femina, is derivedfrom fe, Latin for faith, and minus, Latin for small or weak: "Therefore awicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith, andconsequently quicker to abjure the faith, which is the root of witchcraft"(Malleus 44). One is left with a permanent civil-society tension thatseems unlikely to be resolved, even if legislated in one way or anotherfrom time to time. New York: Columbia U School of Law, 2 .Locke, John. The Prince. . Second Treatise of Government. To the degree the authority of the Churchis connected to the maintenance of a stable society, it follows that heresyis political revolution as well. 3 4-328.---. The argument against capital punishment as a retribution for crimeputs society in the position of asserting that a greater good isaccomplished by refraining from acting out of revenge than by insisting oncarrying out revenge. Beccaria does not say that there should be no punishment of crime. Innocent VII's Bull Summisdesiderantes, which appeared in 1484, served as preface to and imprimaturof Malleus, formally sanctioning the authority of the Inquisition to"proceed to the just correction, imprisonment, and punishment of anypersons, without let or hindrance, in every way as if the provinces,townships, dioceses, districts, territories, yea, even the persons andtheir crimes in this kind were named and particularly designated in Ourletters" (Malleus xliv). . On the other hand, to assert that society, in order to be civil, mustassume all risks of criminal behavior and positively and affirmativelyconsider itself obligated to limit its claim on the integrity and securityof itself is to argue that criminals are somehow exempt from limits andstructures and more, that the worst of criminals are most exempt. The advocate of conscience on either side of the issue bows to thepersistent storm. Further, all who threatened or endeavored "tohinder or harass the Inquisitors, all who oppose them, all rebels, ofwhatsoever rank" would be subject to excommunication "and yet more terriblepenalties, censures, and punishment . Revised and Brought up to Date by Raymond Postgate and G.P. Hobbes assigns to the sovereign"the power of rewarding with riches or honor, and of punishing withcorporal or pecuniary punishment, or with ignominy, every subject" (528).The sovereign authority to which the citizens look for protection enablesand thereby embodies the construct of justice in the Leviathan, which iswhy attempted or successful regicide is the worst crime, deserving ofappropriate punishment: [I]f he that attempteth to depose his sovereign be killed, or punished by him for such attempt, he is author of his own punishment, as being by the institution author of all his sovereign shall do: and because it is injustice for a man to do anything for which he may be punished by his own authority, he is also upon that title unjust (526). The state theory of Thomas Hobbes, which is not inconsistent withMachiavelli's ideas, rests in significant part on the politics of coercionand absolute power. Thus Rome did nothesitate to pronounce judicial sentence of death on a whole legion at atime, or on a city." Machiavelli cites the practice of decimation, or"choosing by lot every tenth man, and putting him to death," as "the mostterrible" of Roman "administrative acts." Now in context, "terrible" =terrifying and awesome, not disgusting. Opponents of capital punishment take the viewthat no crime is so perverse that society is entitled to impose a deathpenalty for it. In 1964, years before Furman, Bedau abstracted 74cases since 1893 "in which wrongful conviction of criminal homicide [were]. Military expeditions appear to lie exclusively atroyal discretion, for repeated references are made to the fact thatsoldiers may be obliged to fight, in person, on the king's behalf (Edwards32-33). Pope Sixtus IV issued three proclamations, PapalBulls, "directly attacking sorcery, which he clearly identified with heresy. Such repentance would be impossibleif the punishment for a crime is death. That conceptioncenters on the idea of opposing "interests to passions" or using sovereignpower for "social control" of such natural passions, where everybody mayseem to be looking for personal liberty but is in fact strugglingconstantly to get what he wants. Barbara MacKinnon. and that without any right ofappeal" (Malleus xliv-xlv). Clark cites the reformist/romantic reaction todehumanization created by the industrial revolution, includinghumanitarianism as "the greatest civilizing achievement of the nineteenthcentury" (Clark 329). In the last part of the 2 th century, the most controversial aspect ofAmerican capital punishment had to do with the residue of racism. The Hammurabi Code and the Sinaitic Legislation, with a Complete Translation of the Great Babylonian Inscription Discovered at Susa. The Sage and the Atheist. He says that thenotion of God as avenger of justice or compeller of obedience is misplaced,an artificial, human construction just as human actions are the result ofhuman will and agency. Themodern deterrence position of capital-punishment advocates is that,properly applied, capital punishment in individual cases will loom as soserious a threat that a potential murderer will think twice before killing.Only if punishment is severe enough--and the death penalty is the mostsevere punishment imaginable--will criminals be deterred from committingcapital crimes. In that regard, former Attorney General Ramsey Clarkcites unjust executions of the innocent, the "impairment" of effectiverehabilitation, and the decline of judicial administration. No lesssignificant than the appeal to civil authority was the moral appeal toheaven, even though theories of moral philosophy underwent dramatic changeover the course of the development of Western thought. The Malleus Maleficarum. there is noplace for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: andconsequently . But itbegan what would become the modern discourse of the death penalty. Another is the difficulty ofpersuading the committed on any side of the issue of the validity ofopposing views. Nonwhiteswere historically likely to receive death-penalty sentences and weresentenced in numbers out of proportion to their population (Clark 335). The influence of Beccaria on capital-punishment discourse was keenlyfelt throughout Europe. Is there a way around this? According to Summers, witchcraft was proxyfor social revolution. In a Western Europe that at that timeretained its Roman orthodoxy, the Bull served as authorizing legislationfor witch-hunters at large. New York: Simon and Schuster/Touchstone, 197 .Edwards, Chilperic, ed. In the U.S., for example, discourse ofcapital punishment has been vexed by different views of what the phrase"cruel and unusual punishment," forbidden by the Bill of Rights actuallymeans. That is why van den Haag says that the criminal "volunteers" (284)to assume risks associated with breaking those limits, breaking out ofthose structures to which the other members of civil society have agreed.Conclusion One striking fact about the death-penalty debate is its closeness todebate over the structure of civil society. One of the most important handbooks of civil and moral legislation ofthe late medieval period was the Malleus Maleficarum, first published 1485-149 . New York: Literary Classics, Inc., 194 . Liberty is really only a liberty tostruggle; man lives in fear of attack by others. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1995. Ed. And inless than 1 years, as the Enlightenment philosophers emerged, so did acritique of capital punishment. Thegeneral line of argument in favor of capital punishment is this: "The idealof equal justice demands that justice be equally distributed, not that itbe replaced by equality" (van den Haag 285). Cesare Beccaria's study of crime and punishment in 1764 can be viewedas a discourse of nation-state structure, not unlike that of Locke. 238). There can be no doubt that he saw the society of witches to benothing else than a vast international of anti-social revolutionaries"(Summers xxv). Cauthen. What thiscomes down to is the foundation for reform of the penal system and advocacyagainst capital punishment on one hand and on the other prevention of crimebased on the fact that "the magistracy as a whole," including the divine-right monarch, must "observ[e] rather than corrupt[] the laws" (Beccaria98). Where reinforcement of good behavior (reward)strengthens that behavior, punishment of bad behavior does not weaken thatbehavior. Crime in America: Observations on Its Nature, Causes, Prevention and Control. The text was published decades before theReformation and Henry VIII's break with Rome. Hedoes say that punishment should be commensurate with the crime. Military misfortune in general belongs to the king, not hissubjects. . "Proportion punishments to crimes," says the Marquis Beccaria; but those who made the laws were not geometricians (Voltaire, Forty 319).Voltaire continues the argument in The Sage and the Atheist, citing theEnglish custom of capital punishment for offenses against property and theSpanish Inquisition practice of roasting heretics alive. But it has been already said, and cannot be too oftenrepeated, that a man hanged is good for nothing, and that punishments oughtto be useful. Views of capital punishment collide they do not overlap and convergewith public policy and theories of state. With or without capitalpunishment, murder rates are much the same" (Clark 331). Our emotions may cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime, but we know that killing the criminal cannot undo the crime, will not prevent similar crimes by others, does not benefit the victim, destroys human life, and brutalizes society. The Discourses. This is the context of thefamous statement that, in a natural state of war, "where every man is Enemyto every man . .wherein men live without other security . Some of thissentiment became policy, or anyway advocacy, in Europe over the course ofthe next century. In a somewhat sardonic tone, he notes that abolition advocates"read without a qualm, indeed they read with rejoicing, the hideous ironyof 'Killer Gets Life'; they sigh with relief instead of horror. "How to Argue About the Death Penalty." Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, ed. Barzuncuts to the difficulty of sustaining a deterrence theory when he quotesShaw's comment, eerily reminiscent of Machiavelli's discussion ofdecimation in the Discourses, that hanging the wrong man will deter aseffectively as hanging the right one" (91). Deterrence-theory opponents make the case that it is difficult toprove how the ultimate penalty can assist society in pursuit of thegreatest good for the greatest number. Poetry and paradox aside, in the modern period definite lines ofargument for and against capital punishment have decisively emerged. This being so, there does not appear to be an identifiableeducative process, or utilitarian good, when execution occurs. Writing in the early 197 s, Ramsey Clark adds thatstudies of capital punishment "have concluded with Professor ThorstenSellin that 'it has failed as a deterrent.' . Skinner, behaviorist, states(182-5) that retaliation for crime by the public simply does not work,collapsing retribution into deterrence. Montague Summers. proved beyond doubt." In eight of those cases, the death penalty wascarried out (Bedau, Death 436, 438). The goodaccomplished would be the removal of an evil, criminal behavior. Such dynamics were in the background of programmatic capitalpersecution of witches, for which Malleus appears to have served as theInquisition's apologia and training manual. The anticipated character of "yet more terrible penalties" may bededuced from the myriad executions for witchcraft that occurred over thenext couple of hundred years. . This argument rejectsthe validity of government power over "moral bookkeeping" (Bedau 296), onthe theory that in a free society the government should have less, not morepower over its citizens, even criminals, many of whom lack the rationalcapacity to make moral judgments and deserve sympathy and support on thataccount. . By the mid-nineteenth century Great Britain had abandoned the deathpenalty for petty crimes against property and confined it to crimes againstpersons. New York: Macmillan, 1967.Hobbes, Thomas. The Malleus Maleficarum. History of Western Civilization. On Crimes and Punishments. We have seen Machiavelli's approval of decimation asdeterrent cites the case of crimes with multiple unknown perpetrators. Advocates and opponents of capitalpunishment continue their debate and efforts to assure that public policyconforms with their views. . The importance of Malleus must be understood in relation to theinterpenetration during the Middle Ages and the English Renaissance ofcompeting religious practices, of religious and secular matters, and ofreligious and political matters. Henry Paolucci. the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, andshort" (Hobbes 186). By Henrich Kramer and James Sprenger. This is specifically antithetical to the views of The Prince and theLeviathan and prefigures a major shift in rational statecraft. Voltaire, Beccaria's French contemporary, cites himin a satirical critique of state tyranny in general and of the deathpenalty in particular. One line of thought is that capital punishment, either as moraljudgment or as a mechanism of public policy is in no way justifiable; a keypolicy argument that it serves no useful purpose of state, especially ifthat purpose be a deterrent to others motivated to commit a capital crime.On the other side of debate is the view that capital punishment can be bothefficacious and morally justifiable, one key policy argument being thatanticipation of suffering the death penalty discourages, or deters,commission of capital crimes. Ed. Like Ramsey Clark,Callahan argues that "it is far better to affirm a victim's life by anaffirmative act: to refuse to take a life in retribution, to give another afuture" (Callahan 9). The Code dealsextensively with property and agricultural rights and military obligations,all of which function at the king's pleasure. The HebrewBible, which appears to have been reduced to writing in about 8 BC,presents a somewhat ambiguous picture of the relationship between humansociety and death. A failure of or offense to the faith is of course heresy, which is anintolerable religious revolution. Ed. To settle where theywill, the Israelites kill virtually every people in their path, taking some4 years to wander the desert in the meantime. A kidnaper, whether he sells his victim or still has him when caught, shall be put to death (Exod. 1 ). The Man of Forty Crowns. 2d ed. Leslie J. This is not advocated as a feature ofpsychological anger or revenge, but rather retribution that will "vindicatethe law and the social order undermined by the crime" (Van den Haag 287).On this view, civilized social structure entails limits to which all--including rather than excluding criminals as members of society--aresubject. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 198 .Machiavelli, Niccolo. But when a man kills another after maliciously scheming to do so, you must take him even from my alter and put him to death. Executions cheapen life (Clark 331). Because defendants in capital cases are disproportionately black, often indigent, they are rarely represented by trial wizards and legal scholars. Trans. 2 vols. . The issue that is never far from the center of death-penalty debate isthat of deterrence. There is alsothe issue of whether, as Machiavelli suggests in the Discourses, capitalpunishment has a deterrent effect on prospective criminal acts, a point towhich we shall return. Christian E. David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature includes a passage that can beinterpreted as a criticism of the death penalty, based on its unreasonableapplication. 284-9.Voltaire. Injustice, on this view, liesnot in the possibility of wrongful execution but in allowing capitalcriminals to escape punishment. Barbara MacKinnon. Some years ago, in Turkey, two young men were condemned tobe impaled, for having (without taking off their caps) stood to see theprocession of the Lam a pass by. Additionally, Hume cites the benefit of "repentence [sic,which] wipes off every crime, especially if attended with an evidentreformation of lie and manners" (281). . Since that time,34 states have reinstated the death penalty (Liebman 14). 329-357.Wells, H.G. Race, which is connected to socioeconomic demographics, figures intobroader questions of fairness in capital cases, where fairness is theequivalent of competent defendant advocacy consistent with constitutionalguarantees. Beccariaargues that the law must be "capable of being learned by all" in societyand that there is a social evil in laws that are so obscure as to requireinterpretation, forcing everybody "to rely on a handful of men because itis unable to judge for itself how its liberty or its members may fare -- ina language that transforms a sacred and public book into something verylike the private possession of a family" (Beccaria 17). New York: Dover, 1971.Latzer, Barry, and James N.G. Focus on the Western philosophical discourse of capitalpunishment may help clarify the public-policy discourse.Capital Punishment From a Philosophical Perspective As a practical matter, Western civil and juridical thought from theancient period to the 18th century legitimated capital punishment by anappeal to the moral and civil authority of the state, in a mannercompletely consistent with the Code of Hammurabi, even though theories ofstatecraft shifted dramatically over the course of Western history. Each of these principles of punishment is seen by deterrence advocates as essential for maximum protection (Bailey 671). If we are to still violence, we must cherish life. New York: Literary Classics, Inc., 194 . "Witchcraft."Hayes, Carlton J.H., Baldwin, Marshall Whithed, and Cole, Charles Woolsey. Some commentators do not rely on the deterrence theory to accept thevalidity of capital punishment as public policy or civic virtue. Whether capital punishment actsa deterrent for the commission of crimes in general will also be discussed.Introduction The practice of capital punishment, or a state-sanctioned deathpenalty for certain crimes, appears to be as ancient as history. . Hobbes's advocacy of capital punishment as one amongmany instruments of state is completely consistent with, and must beunderstood in relation to, his conception of the state. This research examines the subject of capital punishment from aphilosophical perspective. What is striking about views ofthe death penalty is that they may be held in common by those whose worldview is otherwise sharply different, or held in stark contrast by those whoshare the same general world view. (5ff), citea variety of initiatives in individual states that have had the effect oflimiting or at least querying capital punishment: an executive-ordermoratorium on capital punishment in Illinois pending further study of theissue; a similar legislative order in Nebraska, passed over the governor'sveto; bills meant to improve capital prisoners' access to worthy defenseand DNA evidence. While there is no common Power, there is noLaw: where no Law, no Injustice" (188). Trans. New York: The Free P, 1953.Summers, Montague. In the Roman legions, a capitaloffense by one of a group of 1 could result in the death of ten of thatgroup, possibly though not certainly including the wrongdoer(s).Machiavelli continues, in an early articulation of what is now known as thedeterrence argument: For when a great number of people have done wrong, and it is not clear who is responsible, impossible to punish them all, since there are too many of them; and to punish some, and leave others unpunished, would be unfair to those who are punished, and the unpunished would take heat and do wrong at some other time. Whetherit should or would do so did not much come into the picture, but in whatmanner capital punishment would be an instrument of state did. But even if God were to function as the divineavenger, not only it is impossible, without the necessary connection of cause and effect in human actions, that punishments could be inflicted compatible with justice and moral equity; but also that it could ever enter into the thoughts of any reasonable being to inflict them (Hume 279-8 ).This argument, which has in its background Hume's atheism, neverthelesssubtly supports the view that finding support for capital punishment byappealing to divine authority and the notion of retribution is the same asappealing to a chimera. Detmold. . The Best Known Works of Voltaire. In fact, the greatest effect of punishment is merely a temporarysuppression of the behavior, not a reduction of it. In Machiavelli's Prince and Discourses, seminal documents ofstatecraft, at issue is not so much how government ought to be constituted,as for example in Plato's Republic, as how the head of government shallobtain and retain as much power as he can muster through his ability andthe strength of his command. Ed. In addition to the view thatexecutions dishonor rather than honor human life, two issues dominate death-penalty discourse in the U.S.: the question of fairness of application ofthe death penalty, which is bound up with the persistent question of racismin the American judicial system more generally, and the question ofaccuracy, or the possibility of executing an innocent person. The positions on these issues seem unambiguously irreconcilable, butthe fact that they belong to ideas of relatively recent vintage in thehistory of Western thought suggests a need for understanding of theirprovenance. Significantly, Malleus cites biblical texts, includingEcclesiastics, Matthew, and Corinthians, that fuse womanhood in generalwith a propensity to pernicious behavior, which is itself evidence of atendency toward witchcraft. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1995. Documentation of unfair application appears to have been largelyresponsible for the U.S. "In Favor of Capital Punishment," Capital Punishment. In the U.S. On this view, thequestion of what the criminal is suffering from becomes whether it is guiltover the crime or disgust at prison conditions. 89-98.Beccaria, Cesare. Montague Summers. Georgia, 4 8 U.S. London: Penguin, 1985.Kramer, Henrich, and Sprenger, James. Capital punishment wasreinstated in 1976, based on Supreme Court majority rulings onconstitutionality of laws rewritten to conform to Furman. The research will set forth the historicalcontext in which death-penalty philosophy emerged as a significant issue ofsocial and civic discourse and then discuss prevailing philosophical andreligious views of capital punishment, both for and against, withparticular emphasis on philosophical views. B.F. But where a theory of retribution for crime underpinsadvocacy of capital punishment, the main line of thought is that if civilsociety is to be governed by moral structures, if it is to have anystandards at all, then a positive social claim for moral bookkeeping--extreme, to be sure--seems valid. Thus whatsort of society is it that devalues its civil structures by ignoring themin cases where its civil structures have been devalued by crime?

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