Calling for the Global Abolition of the Death Penalty

An article by Frank    7 Comments

It is referred to as capital punishment, not to be confused with corporal punishment. The latter involves getting a whack, the former involves death and hence its other title – the death penalty. It is often argued that it is the most just and effective means of punishing those who commit terribly heinous crimes; crimes that disturb our humanity to the very core and it is this defense that is brought forward when arguing in favour of it.

It must be said that this common defense does not represent the majority use of capital punishment in the same way that the defense for torture to save a highly populated city from an imminent bomb explosion that could wipe out millions, does not represent the reality.

The death penalty is used as a tool in various nations to deal with all sorts of actions the state deems to be a crime – in some instances those crimes are heinous, but in far too many they are minor or simply an offense to the state and the state chooses to respond to that offense by killing those who commit the offense. Far too often, the death penalty is as a method used to punish activities that do not even come close to fitting its usual defense.

In China, 68 crimes are punishable by death and China kills more people annually as a punishment than any other nation, though there are other countries who execute more per capita, such as Iran and Singapore. China’s list of crimes punishable by execution include drug trafficking (some minor offences have led to the death penalty), tax fraud, crimes against national symbols or treasures, theft, smuggling things such as gold and silver and many more. Also, China executes people for repeated attempts of certain crimes even if those crimes were unable to be carried out – the motivation is seen as the issue.

Iran, which executes more people per capita than China has three standout offences that it punishes by death – murder, apostasy (converting from Islam to another religion) and sodomy (homosexual practice). The crime of apostasy in Iran has allegedly been used on people who have stated that they have not converted – it is alleged that the accusation is sometimes pursued for political purposes.

It is reported that between the years of 1979 and 1990, Iran executed 107 people in relation to homosexual activity. Amnesty International has reported that in January of 1990, 5 people were executed for “homosexual tendencies”.

Iran also executes the highest number of child offenders even though it has signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child that condemns the execution of those below the age of 18. Iran currently has over 100 people on death row for crimes committed as juveniles (under 18).

Since 1990, at least eight countries have executed offenders who were under 18 at the time the crime was committed, they are China, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and The Democratic Republic of Congo.

Singapore is well known for its use of the death penalty as punishment for many offenses. It carries out executions by hanging the offender in Changi Prison at dawn on Friday mornings. Its list of offenses punishable by death include – mutiny, piracy, murder, perjury that results in the execution of an innocent person, abetting the suicide of a person under 18 or a clinically insane person, kidnapping in order to murder, robbery by five or more people that results in the death of someone, manufacturing of certain drugs, drug trafficking and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

Drug trafficking is assumed if a person is found to be in possession of certain amounts of various drugs and thus the usual requirement for the provision of proof in relation to trafficking is not deemed necessary. Also under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act, one is deemed to be in possession of drugs if they have in their possession a key to anywhere that drugs are stored.

Uganda is currently examining a bill that would institute the death penalty in relation to homosexual activity.

Clearly, a large percentage of those being executed (and this only covers state usage, not mob justice that would use various arguments to justify the death penalty), including the execution of juveniles, do not fit the usual emotive defense of capital punishment at all, but even where the execution does fit the oft used emotive defense, is it the best answer?

The U.S.A has a judicial system that comes up with all sorts of justifications for the various ways different states who employ the death penalty use it and in the eyes of some, greater usage of the penalty seems to carry some sort of badge of honour. Since 1979, 1195 executions have taken place (Texas has killed the most) and as of July 2009, there are over 3,000 inmates on death row (California has the most). Contrary to the argument that it would act as a deterent, the numbers of people on death row has markedly increased over the last few decades (even in the face of some states suspending executions or placing moratoriums on it). One would think that a first world, educated country like the U.S.A would see the futility of the death penalty, remove the barbaric practice nationwide and vehemently pursue other means to address crime.

Allow me to say it bluntly, I am not in favour of the death penalty– I think it should be abolished globally. All justifications that nations use to prop up their use of the death penalty need to be removed.

No matter what they have done, I cannot justify the taking of a human life in order to make right any crime. The eye for an eye justice system (which is what the argument amounts to) does not work for me. The shedding of a person’s blood to account for the shedding of the blood of another at their hand is a poor shadow of justice as it is mostly about revenge.

As a follower of Jesus and someone who looks to his example as offering a way forward for humanity, I don’t see an example that allows for the taking of human life or an example that allows the eye for an eye method of punishment – instead I see an example that sought reconciliation, to the point where he took humanity’s ills on himself.

Now, I am fully aware that the state must balance the desire for reconciliation and rehabilitation with the need to keep people safe from those who cannot act in any way but with violence, but responding to the violence of some with death is not the answer. I am not sure what the best response is to the most hardened criminals who commit crimes that should shock us, but further killing is not it.

Globally the death penalty is a heinous tool of the state that needs to be abolished.